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f 


RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


HARPER’S SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES 
F. STUART CHAPIN, EDITOR 


RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


A STUDY OF RURAL PROBLEMS 


BY oa: 


CARL C. “TAYLOR 


Dean of the Graduate School and 
Director of the Bureau of Economic and Social Research 
North Carolina State College 








HARPER &% BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 
1926 


RURAL SOCIOLOGY 
COPYRIGHTS (L926, (BY 
HARPER & BROTHERS 
PRINTED IN THE U.S. A. 
FIRST EDITION 
I-A 


EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION 


» 


In our industrial-urban civilization the problems of rural 
living too often fail to receive the attention and study prop- 
erly due them in consideration of society’s inevitable depend- 
ence on agriculture. Intermittent study of agricultural 
problems has followed upon the intermittent pressure of 
farmers for attention to their needs and ideas. Already the 
physical side of farm life and agricultural production has 
shown improvement and important gains, but not until our 
schools and colleges devote more careful attention to the social 
side of farm living will our rural civilization improve and 
develop to its proper relationship with city living. In some 
fields of economic and physical rural welfare the next for- 
ward step waits on advance in rural social organization. 

The present book is a systematic treatment of rural so- 
ciology and social problems. Professor Taylor has brought to 
his task extensive research experience in rural surveys, an 
intimate understanding of rural social relationships and a 
broad scholarly knowledge of social and economic theory. All 
the major problems of rural living are here dealt with in a 
scientific manner and yet the book does not lack in literary 
style and imaginative quality. Throughout the work there 
runs a current of unusual insight because the social psychol- 
ogy of rural problems is everywhere recognized as a basic 
element in the situation. The treatment is therefore thor- 
oughly sympathetic without detracting from the critical and 
scholarly character of its descriptive analysis. 

FH. STUART CHAPIN 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/ruralsociologyst0Otay! 


CONTENTS 


Part One: The Foundations of Rural Society 


Chapter 
I 
II 
Ill 
IV 
V 
VI 


Py NN. Bao) Cee ie ne AA Sana See | 


We ten hol) | OS eRe en Wy Sel Sl at ae ieee ey es! 1 ane lari iver FF ou) se: Ve 


Part Two: Rural Social Problems 


VII 
ELE 
IX 


Tw PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 70 02 Ue 
THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP... . 
THE PROBLEMS OF THE RuRAL HoME AND FAMILY 
Tue PROBLEM OF THE RurRAL CourRcH. ...... 
AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM . 

THe PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 
TH PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS |) hee ae 
AN ADEQUATE RuRAL EpuCcATION PROGRAM .. . 
Tin) PROBLEMLON RURAL) EH BADTH ny Mou hana 
THE PROBLEM OF RuRAL RECREATION 
THE PROBLEM OF RuRAL ART 


OL TR Sia Fi plSs Weare ere ete Te 


Serenade hae Tih @) sen Cle belgie Ure 


Part Three: The Farmer and His Society 


XVIII 
XIX 
XX 
XXI 
XXIT 


Tuer FARMER AND His CoMMUNITY 
CHE ARMERWAND. ELIS OWN eu iain taille cu Uinta, 
THe FARMER AND His GOVERNMENT 
RURAL SociaL PsycHoLoGy 


Sa ee) Oy ee Sly Lie A an) ye 


OL) fees ee ney te etedes lay, @ 
SIEM ee ar.y OPO DMR PE ce EO STE YT Ne. | Bert! 0 ie 
OMe ON Ore A ee Maer Le 


INDEX 


OO Pe Orr Oe One ee Oy ee Oo wal Owe Olli O  ViO8 Te GPF b ety lw ens OTe) They) el ho Ba © 


ai 

Pay Te 

‘ I 7 wl y.! { j 
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a 
: Lig re eae 


‘ } tt 2) I ANN SKY REA My, 


| 
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| 
fa 


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ata 


A aa 
Py th) i 
a ‘ 
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(en? fae 
ee 
V1 


Nae 


ae 





PREFACE 


THE field of rural sociology has developed rapidly during the 
last ten years. Few systematic college text books have ap- 
peared during that time. Information and knowledge in the 
field of rural social life warrants an attempt to bring together 
a consideration of outstanding specific problems of rural life 
and the general principles of the science of sociology. It is my 
hope that some such contribution has been made in this 
volume. 

I have not deemed it necessary to include, either at the ends 
of chapters or in an appendix, an elaborate bibliography. Such 
was necessary a few years ago when specific information in this 
field could be had only from scattered sources. Citations to 
other treatises in rural sociology and to supplementary and 
ramifying fields of knowledge are made in foot notes at the 
proper places. 

In a number of instances I have presented information 
gathered by myself and my students during the last ten years. 
Much of this information has not appeared elsewhere. Some 
of it has. In a few instances the chief contents of chapters 
have previously appeared in Rural America and Social Forces. 
In each of these cases the editors knew of my intention to use 
later the materials in this book. 

I have made liberal use of materials and ideas from other 
books in rural sociology and general sociology. I desire to 
take this occasion to thank the authors of these books for their 
materials. In every case I have tried to give credit by means 
of citations to their work. 

I desire especially to mention the assistance that has been 
rendered me by my two sisters E. Grace Taylor and Ethel 
Mae Taylor for reading a portion of the manuscript; to my 
colleagues Professor W. A. Anderson for reading all the manu- 
script, and Professor A. J. Honeycutt for reading a portion of 
manuscript; to my wife for assisting in reading proof; and to 
Professor Stuart Chapin, editor of this series. 

Cari C,. Tayor. 


- a) eyy aad — a) Let « Tt wy f, Wd ra Tia. wae a a | Aa 
heat , a f 0 7s hiner a i wt ve shel ie A +e 4 oe 
re ly ; J ee ve ‘e Tes y 1 st 
44 Pint Co PURER MAST ie di Raia ‘ men 
Lys > ‘ Ai ‘t hehe wae, } tae al, Ag 
re % Wa } a t ; . hi ia ’ - on ; he Ph it 
‘i He ‘ ~ i oe ‘ : a 0 mY 

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j _ > oy vo" EV % 
villa mu’ wt Dd Beira HY. re BMAP RY ° alii)" 
Bik ee St (ome SEF LOT OO Se 





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wy 5. % sg : - AG ie ; Hah ies a. ay r 
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le Lt, AE Aes AT On Le Daehn oe te Herd A TOUR er aie i parheala Tage 
2 : . yh | eet) 
rie } By By a ld v ¥ Ce bce tha ih bee a a y rid Ay Ns ee ¥ Btai | ee 
ry ‘ Ti ‘i wre?» ty Aas ' — } am ly: ’ poy eter? vr Way By % aw ae NN ai fake pin *, ) 
eh oy : . Ahan Was wy 4 ci ws yet | Wank is ei tt alee Bin at me | ri, ; x a 


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i i L *) “i wad AN : - Aya ' Was tA bs balares eh ae 
A alae 4 


Bay ct fe MOR PR el a ct Afi nel a ‘ty 
ee, | Pep ee Net 
| I en eh: Dy Tae " 
| a tN ela ae ara ‘Sel Stee Saecaak 

Biel is de aligns aie ARS Nabe eyo 

Bete sek OLE Aw pean f ny in ate 4 ee 

nf nes, fe ian 
vie Nope ey Cid abe Rea Jie ty We 
a . hae Hi ‘ 
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duties 


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Part One 
THE FOUNDATIONS OF RURAL SOCIETY 


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CHAPTER I 
THE FIELD OF RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


THE RELATION OF RURAL SOCIOLOGY TO SOCIOLOGY AND THE 
OTHER RURAL SOCIAL SCIENCES 


The Difference between Rural Sociology and General Sociol- 
ogy.—Rural sociology differs from general sociology in that 
general sociology must analyze and describe the structure and 
functioning of all human relationships, while rural sociology 
takes for its task the description and analysis of those human 
groups which live by the occupation of agriculture or by occu- 
pations immediately dependent upon agriculture. Rural so- 
ciology is concerned with the relations of rural people to each 
other, the relations of rural people to other sections of national 
and world populations, with rural institutions, with the rural 
standard of living, and with the social problems which attach 
themselves to life and labor on the farm and in farm com- 
munities. Under this broad classification all sociology may 
be divided into rural sociology and urban sociology. Many 
other divisions of the field may be and are made for the sake 
of the detailed analysis of social life and social structure. 
Until the social significance of agriculture and of rural com- 
munities is made more apparent, rural sociology will prob- 
ably attempt to cover some such broad division of social life 
as is indicated by the Urban-Rural classification. 

The Difference between Rural Sociology and Rural Eco- 
nomics.—The distinction between rural sociology and agri- 
cultural economics is more difficult to make than that between 
general sociology and rural sociology. The mass cf material 
to be handled in any adequate analysis of rural social life 
automatically drives students and teachers away from any 
detailed consideration of those facts which have bearing upon 
other than rural community life. The very vital relations 
which exist between farm profits and the rural standard of 

3 


+ RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


living, the necessity of understanding the economic back- 
ground and base of farm life, and the fact that every rural 
social fact has an economic corollary and vice versa make it 
almost impossible to separate the consideration of rural social 
phenomena from the consideration of the general economic 
facts of farm life. The best that the rural sociologist can do 
in presenting his analysis to readers and students who may 
not have studied agricultural economics, or indeed may not 
have studied economics at all, is to present a sufficient amount 
of economic description and analysis to be assured that his 
readers understand his sociological conclusions. Agricultural 
economies deals specifically with agricultural wealth, credit, 
cost, income, management, and marketing factors. Rural 
sociology is concerned with these factors only as they con- 
dition social organization or social well being. 

Why Rural Sociology Must Cover Other Fields of Rural 
Social Science-—We have already suggested the necessity of 
some economic analysis in rural sociology. It is even more 
important that rural sociology cover the field of rural gov- 
ernment, rural ethics, rural religion, rural education, and rural 
social psychology. These subjects are not yet developed into 
definite fields of analysis and treatment. The division of 
the field of social study into these different subjects is a matter 
of division of labor for the sake of complete analysis. Because 
there are no books written and practically no courses given 
in these various specialized fields, and because there are im- 
portant social problems in these fields, the rural sociologist is 
under the necessity of describing and analyzing the problems 
of rural government, rural ethics, and rural religion, and pre- 
senting the facts of rural social psychology to his readers 
and students. 


TWO DIFFERENT WAYS OF DEALING WITH RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


May Make General Social Analysis and Use of Examples 
and Illustrations from Rural Iife-—Theoretically, it would 
seem best not to separate too sharply the field of rural social 
analysis from that of the remainder of social life. Rural 


THE FIELD OF RURAL SOCIOLOGY 4) 


society is a part of the Great Society. All the facts of the 
institutionalization of social life exist in rural districts. 
Human nature is about the same on the farm as elsewhere. 
Social origins, social evolution, social controls, social change, 
social stratification, and social progress are just as universal 
and just as essential in rural social life as elsewhere. It would 
seem, therefore, that to assemble and analyze the general 
facts, characteristics and tendencies of social life and apply 
them to rural social life would be most apt. The time is prob- 
ably ripe for such a treatment of the field. 

May Discuss and Analyze Rural Social Problems and Pre- 
sent Such General Sociology as 1s Necessary to an Understand- 
ing of These Problems.—Rural sociology has been given a 
place in college curricula because many specific rural social 
problems which need solution have recently come to light. 
The drift of rural population to the city, the decadence of the 
rural church, the inadequate rural school system, the need 
for rural recreation, the encroachment of farm tenancy, and 
other important rural social problems have arisen fairly re- 
cently in American life. Here and there in college circles, as 
elsewhere, these problems have been discussed. Their num- 
ber and importance have gradually become more impressive 
until finally teachers, ministers, and students from the farm 
have begun making inquiry about them. The result is that 
the science of rural sociology has evolved as a study and 
analysis of the ever increasing list of specific rural social prob- 
lems. Until more space in college curricula can be given to 
an analysis of rural society this is well, for the facts which 
attach themselves to these specific rural social problems are 
so many and the demand for specific understanding and solu- 
tion of these problems is so pertinent that each problem 
can best be handled concretely and inductively. 


THE SUBJECT MATTER AND TREATMENT OF RURAL SOCIOLOGY 
SHOULD BE DIFFERENT IN DIFFERENT TYPES OF COLLEGES 


May Be Only One among Many Advanced Courses in So- 
ciology.—In an institution which offers a number of courses 


6 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


in sociology, rural sociology should take its place among the 
many other middle and advanced courses in sociology. In 
such institutions it can always be preceded by a course in 
general sociology. There is little reason why it should be 
preceded by any other course in sociology. There is every 
reason why boys and girls who expect to live on farms should 
not be shunted into courses in charities, criminology, and 
anthropology in preference to rural sociology. Even students 
who never expect to live on farms can no more claim to be 
specialists in sociology without studying the phenomena of 
rural life than they can without studying the phenomena of 
crime, poverty, or the normal social organization of cities. 
Rural Sociology has a place in every department of sociology, 
but a vastly different place in a university, a teachers’ college, 
or a theological seminary than it has in an agricultural 
college. 

May Be the Only Course Given in Sociology in an Agri- 
cultural College—The curricula of agricultural colleges are 
so universally crowded and so thoroughly vocationalized that 
few, if any, courses in sociology find place in them. In such 
institutions the course in rural sociology usually has the task 
and opportunity of giving students the only understanding 
of social life and social organization they will ever get. A 
course in rural sociology in such cases needs to be permeated — 
with general social analysis. An agriculturist needs just as 
much as does any other member of society to be intelligent 
in social and political affairs. If the course in rural sociology 
does not develop this intelligence in him he will not have it 
in any adequate way. The time allotted to the course in rural 
sociology is usually too short to permit of an introduction 
to general sociology, followed by an analysis of rural social 
problems. The best that can be done is to attempt to make 
a happy combination of the description and analysis of specific 
rural social problems and by means of this description and 
analysis develop in the student a fairly adequate understand- 
ing of general social organization. 

May Be the Only Rural Social Science Course Given in a 
College-——In some theological seminaries and teachers’ col- 


THE FIELD OF RURAL SOCIOLOGY q 


leges the only course, except history, given in the whole field 
of social science is rural sociology. In some agricultural col- 
leges no course in history is given. In such eases a course in 
rural sociology which does not give a fairly adequate economic 
and historic background to its treatment of rural social prob- 
lems is almost sure to be very much restricted in value. The 
course in rural sociology in such cases must be a course in 
rural economics as well as a course in rural sociology. An 
understanding of the social problem of land tenantry, of the 
rural home, or even the rural church, cannot be gained with- 
out an understanding of the deep economic roots of such prob- 
lems. The course in rural sociology in such institutions as 
these must develop this understanding or fail in a large 
measure. 


THE USE OF FIELD AND LABORATORY METHOD IN A COURSE 
IN RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Will Be Different with Different Types of Students.—It has 
been but a few years since there were no textbooks in rural 
sociology. There were no assembled or compiled data for 
use as subject materials in a course in rural sociology. The 
teacher was therefore forced to draw liberally upon his own 
experiences and observations and upon the experience and 
observations of his students for subject materials. This 
proved to be a blessing in that it established the custom of 
such practices and has thus guaranteed a large measure of 
inductive and factual treatment of the subject. 

There are now a few adequate textbooks on rural sociology. 
Every teacher of rural sociology is quite conscious, however, of 
the incompleteness of our knowledge of rural life and of the 
impossibility of drawing wide generalizations from this in- 
complete knowledge. He is also cognizant of the fact that 
the average student in his class knows practically nothing 
about rural life in sections and communities other than the 
one in which he lives. He furthermore knows that the aver- 
age college boy or girl has made very few objective observa- 
tions of his or her local community and practically no rational 


8 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


interpretations of the life and conditions of these communities. 
Many of his students will be city bred and will therefore know 
very little about rural life at all. His field and laboratory 
methods will have to be dictated by these conditions and 
facts. 

Some Suggested Field and Laboratory Projects.—In the be- 
ginning stages in the development of rural sociology, before 
voluntary agencies, such as church, school, recreation, health, 
and now a number of official agencies, began to study rural 
life, students almost universally used to assemble a certain 
portion of the subject materials for their own courses. Now 
that there are established expert agencies operating in the 
field, work done by students with limited time and experience 
is looked upon as of precarious scientific value. The findings 
and interpretations of these expert agencies are now avail- 
able in census and survey reports. Such reports offer excep- 
tionally valuable collateral reading. Their values inhere in 
the exactness and details of their information and in the fact 
that they are now available from so large a number of com- 
munities and on so large and various a set of problems, con- 
ditions, situations, and institutions as to make a study of the 
rural life of the whole nation possible. These reports and 
documents, particularly the census reports, offer very little 
interpretation of the facts presented. They, therefore, fur- 
nish most valuable sources for laboratory work. Such sources 
as these furnish about the only practicable opportunity for 
laboratory work in a beginning course in rural sociology. 

It Is Highly Desirable to Use Field and Laboratory Studies 
m Teaching Rural Sociology—Many projects can be devel- 
oped without leaving the college campus. A study of agri- 
cultural journals, country newspapers, Chautauqua programs 
and projects, writing the natural history of one’s home com- 
munity, interviewing students who have come from rural 
communities, and many similar studies are available for 
laboratory projects in a course in rural sociology. A very 
limited amount of actual field work can be done by students 
in a beginning course. This field work can be greatly elab- 
orated in advanced courses. Where funds and time are avail- 


THE FIELD OF RURAL SOCIOLOGY ss 


able, surveys of limited scope can be made by students. 
Nearby rural communities, institutions, and organizations can 
be visited and studied. Rural agencies located in the college 
town may be thoroughly studied. The study of town and 
country relationships, particularly the town end of such rela- 
tionships, may be studied. Merchants, bankers, preachers, 
teachers, and other persons who serve rural folk may be inter- 
viewed. Retired farmers and persons who have left rural com- 
munities to enter town or city occupations may be interviewed. 
Chambers of commerce, farm and home demonstration agents, 
and cooperative associations are often willing to furnish trans- 
portation to instructors and students for rural projects. Week- 
end trips to home or other communities can be _ utilized. 
Arrangements can sometimes be made to take a whole class 
to an exceptional community or to attend some rural com- 
munity function. In exceptional cases students can be used 
to assist in definite nearby rural community projects, insti- 
tutions, or other organization work. All of these possibilities 
are limited in their use because of the lack of time and money 
and because of the number of students who must participate, 
and particularly because of their limited training and experi- 
ence in such work. These things do offer opportunities for 
field work, however. Such work will be valuable in ratio to 
the time and expert guidance which it receives. 


SUMMARY OF THE DIFFICULTIES IN PLANNING AND CONDUCTING 
AN ADEQUATE COURSE IN RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Difficulties of Comprehension and Duplication.—Rural so- 
ciology is a well-defined field of knowledge. It is not a well- 
differentiated field of teaching. It is important that every 
student of social life and every citizen have some understand- 
ing of rural civilization. It is especially important that col- 
lege men and women who expect to work on farms and to live 
in rural communities have such an understanding. It is 
especially important that college men and women who expect 
to work on farms or to live in rural communities have their 


10 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


eyes opened to rural social conditions. They should also 
understand the general social organization of society. 

It is impossible for a course in rural sociology to cover the 
whole field of social science or even the whole field of rural 
social science. It is nevertheless often confronted with one 
or both of these tasks. If it seems to meet the needs of one 
type of student it will probably fail adequately to meet the 
needs of others or will duplicate materials and analyses pre- 
sented in other courses in sociology or in other social science 
courses. 

Difficulties of Comprehension and Accuracy——tThe specific 
problems of rural life are so many, the facts known about 
these social problems are so numerous and yet are often so 
specific as not to be universal, that it is difficult to present 
an analysis of rural life that is adequate and complete. On 
the other hand, if a teacher or writer fails to present statis- 
tical facts his conclusions are likely to be called into question. 

There are many prejudices about rural social problems. 
There are many patent remedies for these problems. Few 
facts about rural social life are presented in the census report. 
Information has to be gained by wide and careful observation 
and from specific rural social surveys made in different com- 
munities. A course in rural sociology must be for the present 
a rapid, almost categorical, analysis of specific rural social 
problems. For a wider knowledge of social life and a deeper 
appreciation of individual rural social problems, the student 
must depend upon elaborate collateral reading and constant 
careful observation. 

Difficulties Arising from the Newness of This Field of 
Study.—Rural sociology is new in the curricula of colleges and 
universities. Indeed it is so new that few people know what 
it is and what it is attempting to do. Rural social problems 
are new themselves and therefore a rural sociology which 
attempts to describe and analyze these problems must neces- 
sarily have recently appeared. Many farm folk even yet 
resent the suggestion that there are rural conditions which 
may in any way be designated as problems. For about a 
decade, however, there have been few things, except the 


THE FIELD OF RURAL SOCIOLOGY 11 


World War and possibly labor problems, about which we 
have heard so much as we have about “The Rural Problem.” 
To some people’s minds the term “Rural Problem” is only a 
shibboleth. To other people’s minds it represents some spe- 
cific single outstanding set of conditions which is fraught with 
grave dangers for the rural communities of America and pos- 
sibly for all civilization. It is not worth our while to dis- 
cuss in a controversial fashion these different concepts of 
what “The Rural Problem” is. Suffice it to say that rural 
sociology attempts to analyze not only the conditions which 
give rise to the “Rural Problem” but also to analyze the forces 
and conditions which constitute it. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


GiuteTtE, J. M., Rural Sociology, Chap. I, The Macmillan Company, New 
York,” 1922: 

Sanperson, D., “The Teaching of Rural Sociology,’ American Journal of 
Sociology, Vol. XXII, No. 4, pp. 433-60, January, 1914. 

ButterFiELD, K. L., Chapters in Rural Progress, Chap. I, University of Chicago 
Press, Chicago, Llinois, 1907. 

Groves, E. R., “The Teaching of Rural Sociology,” in Proceedings of First 
National Country LInfe Conference, pp. 135-7, University of Chicago Press, 
Chicago, Illinois, 1919. 


CHAPTER II 
THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM 


ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE ALL RURAL PROBLEMS INTO ONE 
RURAL PROBLEM 


The Drift to the City—The first rural problem to receive 
general popular consideration was the urbanization process. 
This was again called to our attention by the 1920 census 
reports. The process has been going on at a rapid rate in 
the United States for the last thirty or forty years. Ten 
years ago “The Drift to the City” and “The Rural Problem” 
were phrases that had practically synonymous meanings in 
the minds of the people who were discussing rural life. The 
idea universally aired at that time was that this movement 
of rural population to the city was leaving in the rural dis- 
tricts a decadent civilization—decadent because the city was 
robbing it of all of its best minds and most ambitious citi- 
zens. The rural problem, according to these people, was “how 
to keep the boy on the farm”; “how to retard the process of 
urbanization”; “how to uplift and regenerate rural civiliza- 
tion.” Students of rural social conditions today know that 
with the exception of a few abandoned New England farms 
and the all too frequent phenomenon of the retired farmer 
in all sections of the nation, there is nothing in “the drift to 
the city” which in and of itself is keeping our agricultural 
population from performing efficiently its division of society’s 
labor. ‘Back to the farm” is the echo of a past notion. There 
has never been a systematic attempt to work the slogan and 
there is little possibility that it would have met with any 
success had its advocates attempted to promote it as a prac- 
tical project. Furthermore, during the World War we devel- 
oped altogether too universal an appreciation of the capability 
and capacity of the farming class to tolerate any longer the 

12 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM 18 


assumption that our rural communities are decadent and our 
rural population in need of uplift. The “drift to the city” 
has been real enough, and still continues. It does not, how- 
ever, In any of its immediate aspects present a serious “rural 
problem.” American farms are producing more in annual 
products than at any previous time. American farmers are 
producing more per man than any farm population of the 
earth. Furthermore, they are producing more per acre than 
any previous generation of American farmers has ever pro- 
duced. In 1919, the American farmers produced a total value 
of $19,856,000,000 in farm products. Production per acre has 
increased one-half per cent per year in the United States for 
the last twenty-five years.2, New England farms which are 
said to be suffering from soil depletion and from which the 
population is said to be drifting to the city produced 25 per 
cent more of their eight leading crops in the ten year period 
between 1909-1919 than they did in the period between 1866- 
1876. When we compare the American farmer with farmers 
of other countries, we find that he produces two and three- 
tenths times as much per man as the English farmer, two and 
five-tenths times as much as the Belgian farmer, two and | 
five-tenths times as much as the German farmer, three and 
two-tenths times as much as the French farmer, and six times 
as much as the Italian farmer.* It is production per man 
and not per acre by which we can measure the adequacy of 
rural life. Apparently the “drift to the city” has not thwarted 
progress and efficiency in farming to any great degree, nor 
has the rural population absolutely decreased at any decade 
in our national life. We have today over one and one-half 
million more people living in rural districts than we had a 
decade ago and over six million more than we had twenty 
years ago. With a greater population, a greater gross pro- 
duction, a greater per capita and greater per acre produc- 
tion, it is little short of sophistry to assert that the urbaniza- 


*Year Book of the Department of Agriculture, 1920, p. 806. 

* American Year Book of Agriculture, 1919, pp. 17-25. 

* BurrerFiELD, K. L., The Farmer and the New Day, p. 10, The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1919. 


14 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


tion of American society has left us a degenerate rural popu- 
lation, at least so far as numbers and productive capacity are 
concerned. 

That the urbanization and industrialization of America has 
had its effect on farm progress, farm organization, and even 
farm prosperity can scarcely be denied, however. Our cities 
have grown much more rapidly both in population and in pro- 
duction than has our open country. City occupations and 
industries regularly outbid farming for man power and money 
power. People seem to be more willing and more anxious to 
pay for the products of the city than for the products of 
the farm. A universal knowledge that these things are true 
has done much to give city populations, city standards of 
life, and city culture a dominant position in the thinking 
and ambition of the nation. An urbanization of our whole 
national life in this way has been going on almost from the 
beginning of our national existence. It has moved with in- 
creasing acceleration during the last seventy or eighty years. 
Farmers are not sentimentally concerned about the drift of 
population to our cities. They may not universally be cogni- 
zant of the urbanization of our economic processes, monetary 
rewards, and standards of culture, but they are gradually 
\becoming aware of the fact that industrialization, urbaniza- 
‘tion, or something else has developed an economic régime 
which fails to remunerate them adequately for their goods 
and labors. They may not analyze all of the conditions in 
their cause and effect relations, but they are vaguely aware 
of an unsatisfactory adjustment to modern standards of life 
and quite keenly aware of the unfavorable comparison which 
exists between themselves and the upper classes of our city 
population. 

There are two possible explanations of this urbanization 
of our economic and social life. One is that our farmers in 
the past may have produced more nearly the maximum 
amount of their share of economic goods than have other occu- 
pations and industries. If it is overproduction that is the 
cause of meagre rewards for the producers of raw goods, then 
the remedy is to allow farm production to lag until the income 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM 15 


from farming is sufficiently remunerative to make farmers the 
successful bidders for labor power and money power in the 
open labor and money markets of the country. The other 
explanation is that the city and city industries are not com- 
peting in the open markets according to the law of supply 
and demand, but are so organized that they can offer prices 
and attractions to men for investments which are all out of 
proportion to their value and usefulness to society.t If this 
be true, then America is urbanized and industrialized to a 
point and in a way that is dangerous, and action on the part 
of the government or on the part of powerfully organized 
groups of farmers, alone, can break the city’s monopoly of 
the attention, time, and energy of the nation. 

It is doubtful if the urbanization of modern society, in 
the sense of the drift of population to the cities, can be 
checked. The process is an inevitable part of the industrial- 
ization of society. Some of the outstanding characteristics 
of this industrialization are the refining of goods and the 
distributing of them in world markets, the development of 
surplus, and the constant appearance of new human wants. 
Simply stated, then, the cause of urbanization is this: it 
takes a larger per cent of our population to carry on the re- 
fining and distributing processes of society today than it did 
yesterday and will probably take an even greater per cent 
tomorrow. Unless, therefore, we want to retard these two 
economic processes, we do not want to retard, to any marked 
extent, the drift to the city. Furthermore, to do so would 
be to demand a retrenchment of our expanding human desires 
for refined goods. Our rising standard of living would suffer 
because of such a retrenchment and our farmers rather than 
being better rewarded would be forced to take lower prices 
for their products because of the comparative increase in raw 
products and comparative decrease in refined products. If 
we have developed in American society a false or futile stand- 
ard of living which is leading us to remunerate the pro- 
ducers of refined goods, even of luxuries, better than we 


*Quick, Hersert, The Real Trouble with the Farmer, The Bobbs-Merrill 
Company, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1924. 


16 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


remunerate the producers of raw goods, then we do indeed 
have a problem which results more or less directly from the 
urbanization of society, for the making of refined goods and 
luxuries is wholly a city process and occupation. But this 
problem is not the “Rural Problem” or even any part of it 
so far as farming or farm people are concerned. It is, how- 
ever, a social problem of national importance. The attempt 
to solve it should be made by attacking it at the luxury- 
consuming end and at the point where luxury fortunes are 
being made, not by turning others onto the farm to compete 
with the American farmer or by refusing all farm boys and 
girls admittance to city life. 

Rural Isolation—A more recent attempt to explain the 
rural situation by a single analysis has resulted in the slogan, 
“Rural Isolation.” Some of the statements most often heard 
that represent this belief are that the farmer is conservative, 
superstitious, orthodox, individualistic, and narrow, as a result 
of being out of the stream of civilization. Boys and girls 
are said to be leaving the farm because they loathe the isola- 
tion and lonesomeness of rural life. Farmers are beaten in 
the world’s markets and the world’s legislative forums because 
they haven’t established working contacts with each other 
and with other classes of people. Assertions have even been 
made, though not based upon evidence, that farm women 
have greatly increased our suicide and insanity rates because 
of the loneliness of farm life. 

Without question, isolation on the farm presents a sharp 
contrast to the congestion of the city. Whether it is to be 
more deplored than the congestion of the city is doubtful. 
The fact that farmers have not enjoyed contacts with other 
farm families and with people of other occupations and pro- 
fessions has been a serious check to farm progress and is 
probably more truly an index to all rural problems than any 
one other thing. Furthermore, the farmer himself has come 
to recognize and appreciate this fact. The development of 
better means of communication and better modes of trans- 
portation have recently established contacts between farmers 
themselves and between farmers and other classes. These 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM 17 


contacts are not only appreciated by the farmers but have 
given rise to a desire for more contacts. The farmer today 
has for the most part come to recognize his condition of isola- 
tion as a problem that needs solving. It is doubtful whether 
he has ever recognized the urbanization process in any of its 
aspects as a farmer’s problem. ‘To assume, however, that 
isolation is the only rural problem or even its outstanding 
social problem is to have little conception of the complexity 
of rural society. 

Rural Cooperation.—Probably the only other slogan that 
has held anything like equal sway with the two just char- 
acterized is that which has gone under the general term ‘‘co- 
operation.” This slogan has probably been more thoroughly 
popularized in the last decade than either of the other two. 
It has not only been preached by all people who claimed to 
have an interest in rural welfare but has been quite universally 
adopted by the farmers themselves. Farm people have felt 
that this is a problem which is their own. They have accepted 
it because it expresses not a criticism of rural life but a solu- 
tion for rural problems. They are convinced that they must 
cooperate in order to get the new contacts which they have 
come to desire; that they must cooperate even to carry on 
their own occupation in an up-to-date fashion. It is ques- 
tionable, however, whether cooperation has until recently 
been more than a working hypothesis. It has in some cases 
become almost a religious shibboleth. It is as a slogan, a 
shibboleth, or a religion that it has been hailed as a solution 
of the rural problem. As a slogan or shibboleth it has had 
great propagandic effect, most of which has made for a more 
satisfactory and desirable farm life. Without the slogan of 
cooperation little would have been accomplished in the past 
and without it in the future doubtless no rural program will 
ever be attempted. It would be a rather meaningless and 


_ indefinite statement, however, to say that “cooperation” is 
- the rural problem. 


There is probably no other fact or single set of conditions 
which has caught the popular mind in the same degree as the 
three just mentioned. “The drift to the city” and “rural 


18 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


isolation” as rural conditions and “cooperation” as a rural 
program have, to the popular mind, been the essence of the 
“Rural Problem.” Each of these, however, is a mere index 
to a far more complex set of conditions than they themselves 
describe and to rural problems so numerous that they must 
be classified and subclassified for the sake of adequate analysis. 
The rural problem is not one problem but many problems 
combined and interwoven to such a degree that a single 
definition is impossible and for which a single solution cannot 
be found. 


WHAT GAVE RISE TO THE RURAL PROBLEM 


The Knowledge of the Difference between Urban and Rural 
Life-—There are two chief processes which have been mainly 
responsible for the rise of that set of conditions and desires 
which go under the name “The Rural Problem.” These are 
the growing recognition of the difference between rural and 
urban life and the change in the rural situation itself. It is 
not that the breach between urban and rural life has widened 
but that farmers have become more and more aware of what 
city people are and what they enjoy. To these two processes 
there must be added a third, viz., the impetus and interest 
which have been developed by the establishment of institu- 
tions and agencies to study and promote the welfare and eff- 
ciency of the farming class. In fact, for a proper compre- 
hension of any or all of these problems, it is necessary to 
understand the numerous developments which have given 
rise to and conditioned the nature of the so-called “Rural 
Problem.” 

The growing recognition of the difference between urban 
and rural life and between urban and rural people has much 
to do with the farmer’s present attitude of mind about his 
problems. It has led to the belief that urban life is more to 
be desired than rural life. The drift to the city, whether good 
or bad and whether regarded as a rural problem or not, is 
indicative of the belief that urban life is to be preferred to 
rural life. People move from the open country into the city 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM 19 


for many and various reasons but always because they believe 
the city contains the things they individually desire in a larger 
measure than the country does. That thousands of these 
people find themselves living in undesirable conditions after 
they reach the city should not obscure the fact that the city 
does attract people by its superior schools, churches, litera- 
ture, art, and other social attractions. Wages paid wholly 
in cash and hours which are comparatively short attract people 
to the city. Modern industry has opened up fine business 
opportunities and developed great fortunes in the city. These 
facts have become universally known. The fact that not all 
the people of the city participate in these opportunities and 
fortunes is not so well known. The consequence is that the 
economic opportunities are thought to be superior to those 
of the country. The multiplied amusements, bright lights, 
street cars, side walks, and clean clothes of the city are easily 
contrasted with conditions of rural living. 

A study made by the writer of 1,470 heads of families and 
individuals not attached to families who have moved from 
the open country to a number of Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, 
Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ten- 
nessee, North Carolina, and Virginia towns within the last 
ten years reveals the fact that 524 went to the city to partici- 
pate in what they expected to be greater economic oppor- 
tunities; 396 went to avail themselves or their children of 
better educational advantages; 226 went to participate in a 
livelier and better organized social life; and 232 retired to 
the city because of old age or because they had accumulated 
enough wealth to live in comparative idleness the remainder 
of their lives. The remaining ninety-two families gave the 
following reasons: ‘failing health or incapacity to do farm 
work,” “marriage with men with city occupations,” “death of 
the farm entrepreneur or bread winner.” This body of statis- 
tics, while not large, probably fairly represents the facts. In 
a vast majority of the cases these people have voluntarily 
left the farms for towns and cities because they believed that 
urban life in some one specific aspect or in all of its aspects is 
to be preferred to rural life. 


20 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


The Development of Closer Contacts between the Urban 
and Rural Grouwps.—One of the important factors which has 
precipitated discussion and thought on the numerous social 
problems of rural communities and which lies back of a belief 
in the desirability of city life is the almost sudden develop- 
ment of a number of means of communication between coun- 
try and city. The coming of the rural telephone, the free 
rural delivery, the interurban, and the automobile have - 
brought the urban and rural groups face to face. The result 
has been the sudden rise of a consciousness on the part of the 
rural population that civilization has developed many de- 
sirable things which the city alone enjoys. ‘This conscious- 
ness is not a consciousness of a decadent rural life but of a 
life which suffers in comparison with life in the city; of a life 
which has not availed itself of many of the good things which 
modern civilization holds in store for it. One example of 
these modern means of developing urban social contacts 
should be sufficient at this point. In 1907 there were 1,464,000 
rural telephones in the United States. In 1920 there were 
3,156,000. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that in 
1890 there was none. An elaboration of similar facts is given 
in Chap. VII. 

The contacts thus gained through these means of communi- 
cation have given rural people standards and desires which 
they did not previously possess. The establishment of these 
standards and desires has created the problem of fulfilling 
these desires and attaining these standards. 

» The Diminishing Self-sufficiency of the American Farm.— 
It was a psychological impossibility for the “Rural Problem” 
to present itself to the minds of the country people so long as 
American farms were entirely self-sufficient. Problems arise 
with increasing adjustments to be made. To say that the 
self-sufficiency of the farm is diminishing is but another way 
of saying that farm life is becoming an inter-relation of town 
and country life. The development and differentiation of 
industrial processes have automatically removed many proc- 


* Statistics furnished by American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 
New York City. 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM 21 


esses from the farm to the city. Spinning, weaving, shoe cob- 
bling, tailoring, tool and implement making have been abso- 
lutely removed to the city. Even such processes as sewing, 
canning, butter making, and baking have been transferred 
to some degree from the farm home to factory, mill, and bake 
shop. Others will follow. The division of labor, which began 
no one knows how long ago, has changed the face of the 
countryside as well as the face of the rest of civilization, and 
still more and more minute divisions of the processes of pro- 
duction and manufacturing are still in progress. On the whole 
this process has been as beneficial to the farmer and his family 
as to any one else. It has left him free to specialize in the 
production of raw materials and this specialization in no small 
way accounts for his increased efficiency. His increased effi- 
ciency in turn has made it possible for him to sell his products 
in the world markets and with the money received for them to 
buy more of the world’s goods than he could ever have enjoyed 
under a system in which he supplied all his own and his 
family’s needs out of his own fields, flocks, and herds. To 
say that he is now specializing in the production of raw goods 
is but another way of saying that he is depending on other 
people to furnish him with finished goods. He is more effi- 
cient under this system but less self-sufficient. 

The diminishing self-sufficiency of the farm has thrown the 
farmer into contact with other people and these contacts have 
been mainly with city people. He is now acquainted with 
both rural and city life. He is dependent upon city people as 
well as upon rural people and so is interested in the people 
and processes of the city. 

The Desire to be of Equal Status uith Urbanites—The 
interest which the people of the farm now take in the city 
market and city people is not confined to the goods which are 
bought from city people. Contacts with the city and its mode 
of life have made farmers highly conscious of the fact that the 
country lacks many worth while and enjoyable things which 
city people have. The paved streets, street cars, and electric 
lights are practically all in the city. Clean clothes, leisure, 
art, literature, and amusement centers are found chiefly in the 


22 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


city. Furthermore, the people who are permitted by circum- 
stance and opportunity to participate in these desirable things 
are thought to be more urbane, polite, civil, and sophisticated 
than those who are without them. Farm people for the most 
part do not believe that city people are superior to themselves 
but they know that society at large considers the social status 
of the people of affairs and leisure in the city to be superior 
to the social status of the farmer and his family. While 
farmers resent this attitude they nevertheless cater to it and 
are both consciously and unconsciously striving to alter the 
attitude and the situation which has given rise to it. They 
desire, and rightfully so, to be of equal status with the urban- 
ites. This desire and how to satisfy it are part of the rising 
“Rural Problem.” 


CHANGES IN THE RURAL SITUATION ITSELF 


The Loss of Soil Fertility —The factors thus far mentioned 
which have served to brew the Rural Problem are mainly psy- 
chological and social. There have been in addition to them 
some factors more historical, geographical, and physical in 
their nature which have contributed materially to the rise of 
the Rural Problem. Rural people know of the good things 
which the other half of society has, but know also that they 
are living in a rural situation which itself is different from 
that of fifty or even twenty years ago. The problem of the 
loss of soil fertility with the incident possibility of the de- | 
struction of the very foundation of the occupation of farming 
is a recent problem. The great agricultural areas of the | 
United States have been under cultivation long enough for — 
us to have robbed the soil of much of its native fertility, and 
in certain sections, to have completely depleted the soil of 
some of its most fundamental elements. Five million acres of 
land once under cultivation in the Southern states have been 
completely abandoned for real farming purposes. Lands that 
at one time produced fine crops on the basis of native fertility 
must now be encouraged by use of commercial fertilizers. 
Soil erosion of lands which have been long under cultivation 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM 23 


has forced these lands into pastures, meadows, and forests. 
Farmers can no longer mine the soil. They must husband » 
and nurture it. The knowledge of these facts has brought the 
farmer and the nation to an attitude toward the occupation 
of farming, toward the function of the farmer and the future 
of the farm enterprise which is different from anything that 
was in existence a few decades ago. This attitude is one of 
serious questioning and of serious analysis and its develop- 
ment has done much to set the stage for the entrance of the 
“Rural Problem.” 

The Iamits of the Agricultural Frontier Already Reached.— 
So long as there were new and fertile land areas adjacent to 
those which were being depleted, the robbing of the soil of its 
original elements was of little moment. So long as there was 
a “Great West,’ to which population might move, the exhaus- 
tion of the old agricultural areas did not raise any immediate 
problems beyond those of the migration of people and the con- 
struction of transportation and communication facilities be- 
tween their new homes and the established markets of the 
developed areas. When, however, the moving tide of land 
seekers struck the Pacific coast and turned back upon itself 
we became cognizant of the fact that there were limits to our 
national agricultural expansion. From that time on we were 
confronted with the problem of producing the food supply for 
our present and future population upon the areas under culti- 
vation or at least upon acres within the boundaries of the 
populated regions. It was at this era in our national history 
that the tragedy of soil depletion became apparent. The 
population in our rural districts became more dense. Our 
farms grew smaller. Many young men and young women 
who a few years before would have moved west and continued 
to live on farms, now began to drift cityward. The skim- 
ming and mining of the soil was no longer profitable and with 
its unprofitableness arose the problem of how to check the 
process and if possible to repair the damage done. 

With the passing of the frontier and the increasing density 
of population in rural areas came also the passing of the indi- 
vidual exclusiveness of the farmer. His neighbors were now 


24 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


on every hand. Villages sprang up at his very door. Great 
cities developed within his reach. All of these things in- 
creased his contacts with people and his increased contacts 
with people made him a different type of man from the old 
frontiersman. His life became more complex in every way. 
He had new adjustments to make and new problems to solve. 
These new adjustments and new problems are the very essence 
of the “Rural Problem.” 

The Influence upon the Rural Problem of the Growing 
Magnitude of the Nation.—At about the same time that these 
new adjustments and new problems referred to came to be 
clearly recognized by the American farmers, another series of 
developments established the United States as a recognized 
world power. Our war with Spain, in 1898, announced this 
fact to the world. It was not this war, however, which was 
the cause of our rise as a world power. The development of 
our factories and our great export trade had already given us 
standing with the other nations of the world. We had all the 
time been playing a great part in the world production but 
it had been in the production of raw goods which were sup- 
plementary to the great manufacturing enterprises of other 
nations. Now in addition to offering other nations the raw 
products for their factories, we established business enterprises 
which were competing with them. As competitors they had 
to recognize us in a way in which they had not recognized us 
up to this time. The manufacturers in our own nation now 
came to look upon the farm enterprise in the same way as the 
whole world had in the past looked upon America, that is, as 
the producers of the raw materials which were essential to the 
maintenance of factory processes. Because of a recognition 
of these facts, these manufacturers became interested in the 
occupation of farming. Foreign manufacturers became more 
intensely interested in American agriculture because now it 
had to furnish not only them but also the American manufac- 
turer with raw goods. The efficiency and future of the Ameri- 
can farm was a problem in which they were vitally interested. 
The issue of American farm production became a subject for 
discussion in many circles outside of farming communities, 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM 25 


Some great American cities established agencies for encourag- 
ing and assisting in the development of the agricultural re- 
gions from which they drew their raw materials. Transporta- 
tion companies, railroads, and express companies recognized 
their dependence upon the farm enterprise and so established 
agricultural extension departments. Until this wider interest 
developed in what the farmers were doing and what the farms 
were producing any statesman who pled the cause of the | 
American farmer was considered merely a politician bidding | 
for the farmer vote. Now the vastly wider importance of 
agriculture was seen. The problem of the American farm 
became a national and even an international problem of the 
supply of raw materials for factories and of the food and 
clothes supplies for the people of the world. 

The rise of America to a prominent place among the nations 
of the world not only gave the rest of the nation and other 
nations an interest in the American farm, but also gave the 
American farmer himself a deeper appreciation of his worth to 
society and a clearer appreciation of his function in society. 
Seeing his relationship to other industries gave him an interest 
in what was going on in these other lines of enterprise. Pro- 
tective tariffs and other governmental schemes for assisting 
the manufacturers caused him to take a deeper interest in 
what the government was doing, not all of which was of un- 
questioned good for the farmer. These other industries, al- 
ready well established, began to bid against the farmer. They 
bid against him for the capital and investment power of the 
nation. Gradually he began to see his relations to other 
sections of the population and to other industries. He now 
sees clearly that he is of great significance to the nation and 
to the world and that the nation and the world are of no small 
significance to him. When the nations of the world recognized 
the United States as a world power they incidentally recog- 
nized the American farmer in a very special way. ‘This recog- 
nition by others and this discovery of himself presented to the 
farmer many new problems to be solved and many new ad- 
justments to be made. 

The Influence of Institutions and Agencies Established to 


26 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Study Rural Social Problems and to Promote Rural Wel- 
fare——Not least among the causes of the rise of the Rural 
Problem was the establishment of a set of institutions and 
agencies for the purpose of discovering and solving farm prob- 
lems. These agencies and institutions have been working for 
a number of years to convince farmers and other groups of our 
population of the fundamental importance of the agricultural 
enterprise. Some of them have been working steadily and 
with increased effectiveness for eighty years.’ These constant 
efforts, the ever enlarging programs and increasing numbers of 
agencies were bound to bear fruit. A series of national legis- 
lative acts which began as far back as 1861 took on increased 
significance with their rapid expansion of programs and funds 
from about 1890 on. In 1889, the United States Department 
of Agriculture was raised to an executive position and its chief 
officer made a member of the President’s Cabinet. A report 
of an investigation by the United States Department of Agri- 
culture which brings the data up to 1920 shows 65 national 
agricultural organizations, 148 interstate organizations, and 
1761 organizations of state scope.” These organizations and 
associations have developed, expanded, and projected pro- 
grams which include every phase of farm experience, from 
those which have to do with the most technical farm processes 
to many whose purpose it is to propagate and develop rural 
social institutions and even rural ideals. Very recently the 
ereat farm organizations such as the American Farm Bureau 
Federation and the great Growers’ Cooperative Marketing 
organizations have served to heighten the rural consciousness 
of hundreds of thousands of farmers. 

In 1907 President Roosevelt appointed a Commission on 
Country Life. He said in the introduction to the official re- 
port of the Commission: 


The Commission was appointed because the time has come when 
it is vital to the welfare of the country seriously to consider the 
problems of farm life. So far the farmer has not received the atten- 


*Battey, L. H., Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. IV, p. 328. 
*'Taytor, H. C., Directory of American Agricultural Organizations, Wash- 
ington Government Printing Office, 1920. 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM 27 


tion that the city worker has received and has not been able to 
express himself as the city worker has done. The problems of farm 
life have received very little consideration and the result has been 
bad for those who dwell in the open country, and therefore bad for 
the whole nation.t 


Since the report of the Commission, every problem investi- 
gated or discussed by it has been the subject of many investi- 
gations, both official and private. Each of these investiga- 
tions and its findings has served to further define the elements 
in the “Rural Problem” and to make both urban and rural 
people conscious of this. 

In 1918, the American Country Life Association was organ- 
ized at Baltimore, Maryland. Since that time this organiza- 
tion has once each year assembled in national conference 
several hundreds of people interested in all phases and prob- 
lems of rural life. Practically all agencies and institutions 
which have rural life programs have been represented in these 
conferences. Its aim is: 


. .. to facilitate discussions of the problems and objectives of 
country life and the means of their solution and attainment; to 
further the efforts and increase the efficiency of agencies and insti- 
tutions engaged in this field; to disseminate information calculated 
to promote better understanding of country life, and to aid in rural 
improvement.” 


The influence of the forces and movements outlined in this 
chapter constitute the history and psychology of a growing 
consciousness of the place of rural life in the nation. ‘This 
consciousness, while comparatively recent in origin, is today 
so concrete and clear that it enters into practically every 
national problem which confronts the American people. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL WELFARE 


The Relation of Welfare to Efficency—The “Rural Prob- 
lem” is a problem of rural efficiency and rural welfare. The 


* Report of the Commission on Country Life, pp. 9-10, Sturgis and Walton 
Company, New York, 1911. 

*See Annual Proceedings of National Country Life Conference, University 
of Chicago Press, Chicago, Llinois. 


28 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


problems of efficiency and welfare are two aspects of the same 
problem. This is true not only in the sentimental sense that 
we have no efficiency where the lives of the people are un- 
wholesome and unhappy, but in the very practical sense, that 
we cannot get the greatest production unless the producers 
are living a wholesome and happy life. Whether we measure 
rural efficiency in terms of farm production or in terms of 
farm life, it is a problem of national concern and a problem 
of concern to farm folk. 

The term “welfare” has been used so often to apply to mere 
“uplift” or charity programs, that it has been robbed to some 
degree of its wider significance. We are in no sense implying 
that the Rural Problem is one of charity or sentimental up- 
lift. The term ‘welfare’ is here used to include all the 
good things of life for which enlightened people strive. Surely 
in this sense rural people do have a problem of rural welfare. 
They, in common with all other members of a progressive 
civilization, are ever striving to develop and to participate in 
the store of good things which modern society furnishes. The 
sources of these desirable things are to be gotten from all parts 
of the earth, from people other than themselves, and from 
their own home and neighborhood life. The essence of the 
farmer’s welfare problem is then, how to draw from these 
outside sources, how to get in touch with these other people, 
and how to develop his own home and community life. 

How Can Rural People Get for Themselves the Best Things 
Which Their Age Offers?—Is it necessary for people who live 
on the farm to go to the city in order to have the fruits and 
enjoyments of modern civilization? Rural people would very 
sincerely resent an affirmative answer to this question. It 
cannot be denied, however, that thousands of them have per- 
manently moved their residences from the country districts to 
the towns and cities in order to satisfy their desires for so- 
_ called modern things. Millions more of them, in order to 
\ satisfy these desires, travel weekly tens of millions of miles 
back and forth between their farm homes and the nearby 
towns. This statement is not a criticism of these habits of 
modern rural people who have ‘good roads and automobiles 


—— 


\ 
\ 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM 29 


and who have so efficiently organized their occupation that 
they have time to go to the county seats and other towns 
to trade, visit with their neighbors, and attend the picture 
show. It does raise the question of whether they can, and 
should, develop in the open country the facilities, institutions, 
and agencies for satisfying their legitimate desires for these 
modern conveniences and human enjoyments. It is a part 
of the farmer’s problem of rural welfare to decide whether he 
can supply all his needs, and satisfy all of his legitimate de- 
sires, by facilities which he develops in the open country. Is 
it a physical possibility to supply these facilities out in the 
open country? Would it be desirable to duplicate, at a far 
higher cost, the machinery for supplying those desirable 
things, when such machinery is a part of every city’s organiza- 
tion? Certainly, the limits to the farmer’s trading would be 
quickly reached if he attempted any such thing. Just as 
certainly would he go without many conveniences, such as the 
telephone and rural free delivery. Yet more certain is it 
that he would not be supplied with modern recreation facili- 
ties. These are all things which combine to make for welfare 
in the rural districts. A recognition of these facts suggests 
a third alternative, viz., cannot, must not, and should not the 
farmer combine the facilities which the city and town offers 


| him and his family with those good things which are inherent 


in his environment or can best be developed in the open coun- 


\try? No one can object to an affirmative answer to this ques- 


tion. The farmer is not objecting to it. He is practicing it. 


The open country is his to own. The town is his to use or 
own as he sees fit. They are both products of his enterprise. 
His welfare depends upon the efficiency with which he makes 
both of them produce the utilities which satisfy the legitimate 
desires of his modern life. 

How Can Rural People Increase Their Human Contacts ?— 
As has been stated, the relative isolation of country people 
comes nearer being an index to al! rural social problems 
than any other one thing. It is out of contacts that human 
personality, human character and societies develop. Civili- 
zation never has developed in isolation. An individual who 


30 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


does not have the technique of communication—language— 
we call “dumb.” Those individuals who have come in contact 
with a great number of human experiences through literature, 
history, science, and travel we call educated because they have 
developed cosmopolitan minds. They are cosmopolitan be- 
cause they have enjoyed and have imbibed the experiences of 
life through contacts with the world and with other people. 
The early pioneer was devoid of these opportunities. The 
modern farmer has developed many of these contacts and de- 
sires more of them. He wants better contact, and more con- 
tacts, with his own neighbors, with other social groups or 
classes and with the affairs of the world. A part of the 
farmer’s problem of welfare is how to get these contacts. The 
increased density of population in rural districts, the develop- 
ment of towns and cities, the building of wagon roads, rail- 
roads, and interurban lines, the coming of the rural free de- 
livery and the telephones have all given the farmer a taste of 
the cosmopolitan life of the world. These means of trans- 
portation and communication have brought him into contact 
with the life of other people. He has learned to know about 
practically all the good things which other people enjoy. He 
sees that he does not have as much, or as many of some of 
these desirable things as some other sections of our popula- 
tion have. His desires for these things are legitimate de- 
sires. His problem is how to satisfy them. The chief essen- 
tial in the solution of this problem is the ability to increase his 
contacts with the people who have these desirable things, to 
get in touch with the sources from which they are obtained, 
and, above all, to develop them in his own neighborhood. 
How Can Rural People Eliminate or Reduce to a Minimum 
the Stultifying Factors in Their Environment ?—Rural life is, 
for the most part, a happy and buoyant life. It is lived in 
the great out-of-doors, in contact with the direct stimulation 
and beauty of nature. It is not a mechanically restricted 
life. It does not have the smoke and din of the manufactur- 
ing district, the absolute and minute routine machine process 
of the factory, the congestion of the city slum, the factory 
whistle to tell persons when to start and when to stop, or the 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM © 31 


traffic policeman to tell them where they can and cannot go. 
The rural person, from childhood to old age, probably lives a 
life of greater individual freedom than any other person of 
modern civilization. This is not to say, however, that there 
are not forces and factors in his environment which tend to 
stultify his life and, in some cases, to be actually harmful 
to him. 

The man who works as directly with nature as does the 
farmer is bound to be compelled to make very exacting adjust- 
ments to the forces of nature. The factors of production with 
which he works are not carried to him as they are to the fac- 
tory workers. He must go where they are. The materials 
with which he works in planting, cultivating, and harvesting 
are, many of them, not subject to perfect machine processes. 
He must handle and move them with his own physical 
strength. The severity of climate and season under which he 
must often work is not easily modifiable by artificial heat and 
light as it is in the factory and in many city occupations. He 
must endure these severities, seek to mitigate their influence, 
or so order his work as to fit in with them. The hills upon 
his farm cannot be reduced by excavation, the valleys cannot 
be filled, the creeks and rivers cannot be conquered by mere 
bridging. His farm processes lead him over the hills and val- 
leys as they are. Indeed, he must for the most part seek to 
preserve them in their native form if he would make them 
yleld the most. His fences must cross the creeks at the 
borders of his farm and cross or follow around them at other 
points. The result of all these adverse contacts with nature 


is the exact opposite of the exultation which comes with the 


stimulation and beauties of outdoor life mentioned above. 
These are stultifying influences which buffet him year in and 
year out and to which he must continually seek to make easier 
adjustments by the proper organization of his farm enterprise, 
by an increased use of machinery and other modern technolo- 
gies of farming. 

The factors and forces just described are so absolutely in- 
herent in the process of farming that they cannot be elimi- 
nated. The problem they represent is the problem of easy 


32 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


adjustments and maximum uses. A proper appreciation and 
understanding of their psychological effects on the great mass 
of farm people offer another solution to the problem which 
they present. This solution lies in the direction of supplying 
the men who must subject themselves to these severe and con- 
tinuous tests or adjustments with a proper amount of relief 
from their influence. They must have some leisure time and 
this leisure time must be filled with opportunities for reading 
and other educational pursuits, with religious opportunities, 
with opportunities for recreation, and association with other 
people. Children must not be too early or too constantly sub- 
jected to these forces. Women must not be asked, except 
upon rare occasions, to assist in the field and farm processes, 
in addition to their already too arduous household tasks. 
How Can Farm People Raise Their Standard of LIiving?— 
The standard of living is the yardstick by which we measure 
the efficiency and welfare of any person or social group. A 
satisfactory life is so much a matter of personal taste, and 
people are so universally satisfied with tastes which they have 
imbibed from their own home surroundings that it seems to 
some an impossibility to set standards of social efficiency or 
social welfare. There are some things, however, which every 
one will recognize as necessary to life if life is to be worth 
living. The amount or degree of these essential things may 
vary according to occupational needs and to natural environ- 
ments. If, however, any one of them is completely missing 
there is introduced into the life of the individual or group an 
undesirable element, or at least there is left out a desirable 
element. ‘These socially necessary things are, food, clothing, 
shelter, health, education, religion, recreation, and association 
with other persons. The solution of the problem of rural 
welfare demands not only means and methods by which people 
who live on farms may get these essentials of an adequate life, 
but also demands that there be developed a healthy desire for 
these things. The problem of welfare everywhere can best be 
equated in terms of an adequate standard of living. The prob- 
lem of rural efficiency also can best be equated in terms of an 
adequate, progressive standard of living. Many of the ele- 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM © 33 


ments in the standard of living constitute the subject matter of 
whole chapters in this book, and, therefore, a thorough treat- 
ment of the subject will not be presented here. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EFFICIENCY 


The Problem of Rural Efficiency from the National Point of 
View.—The Rural Life Movement which took on conscious 
form in the survey of rural life conditions and in the report 
of the Country Life Commission in 1907 was a sister movement 
with the Conservation Movement. The two movements were 
in fact a part of each other. Theodore Roosevelt considered 
them of equal importance and concern. The fact that the 
conservation of our national resources presented a problem 
which could be measured in monetary terms and a situation 
which could be used for political purposes got it immediate 
consideration. The fact, on the other hand, that the report 
of the Country Life Commission dealt with matters of human 
concern and was interpreted by many as a criticism, caused its 
findings and their portents to be disregarded and even in some 
sections to be resented. Gradually, however, we have come to 
recognize the significance of this report and to know that the 
deficiencies which the Commission found were, and are, of the 
deepest concern to our national life. 

From the national point of view, it is perfectly legitimate to 
raise the question as to whether the conditions of life under 
which any section of our population lives are such as to handi- 
cap efficient citizenship and national vitality. It is natural, 
therefore, that the nation should be concerned about the con- 
ditions of life on the farm. A democracy, above all other 
forms of government, demands an enlightened citizenship on 
the part of all its members. It demands at least a degree of 
sympathy and appreciation of interests other than their own. 
It demands for its success a knowledge of, and interest in, 
national, state, and local affairs. These are its very essence. 
It doesn’t matter, therefore, whether it is the problem of the 
city slum, the problem of immigration, the problem of the 
leisure class of the city, or the problem of the relatively 


34 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


isolated farmer, it is a problem of national concern to a nation 
which attempts to be a democracy. 

In addition to that phase of citizenship which has to do with 
enlightened political action, the nation has a further concern 
in the life and accomplishments of its population. It wants 
to be assured that each section of its citizenry is performing 
efficiently its division of the nation’s task. The United States 
as a nation wants to be assured that life, conditions, and op- 
portunities on the American farm are such as to make it pos- 
sible for the American farmer to perform successfully his divi- 
sion of society’s labor. This is not to say that the nation is 
a taskmaster whose purpose it is to drive its servants at top 
speed of production no matter what the consequence. It 
must, however, be interested in their productive efficiency. 
The World War heightened the already growing realization 
on the part of the nation, and on the part of the farmer him- 
self, of his share of the nation’s task. It was not until this 
time of crisis, and its accompanying need for great quantities 
of food and other raw products, that the whole country came 
to recognize that farming is one of our great specialized indus- 
tries. Previous to this time, except in rare instances, we had 
thought of farming problems largely as local problems. Fac- 
tory and transportation industries had received national at- 
tention and encouragement in far greater degree than had 
farming. The great need for efficient farm production, so 
universally responded to by the farmers of the nation, did 
more to brew national concern about farm efficiency than any- 
thing that had ever before happened. It is probably safe to 
say that the problem of rural efficiency from the national 
viewpoint will never again be absent from national thought 
and national programs. 

If we take the 1920 census statistics for the twenty leading 
industries of the nation, we find that those industries produc- 
ing 39.2 per cent of our national products are businesses de- 
pendent directly or indirectly upon farming. If these be 
added directly to the farm values we discover that 59.1 per 
cent of our national production in 1920 had its source in the 
enterprise of farming. The United States is, and will con- 7 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM — 35 


tinue for years to come to be, fundamentally an agricultural ~ 
nation whether the majority of our population continues to 
live on the soil or not and whether we measure our national 
wealth in terms of the raw products from the farm or in terms 
of the products of other industries which could not be main- 
tained without our farm production. 

The Problem of Rural Efficiency from the Farmer’s Point 
of View.—In periods of national stress, such as prevailed dur- 
ing the World War, it is natural that farmers, as all others, 
should measure their efficiency in national terms or even in 
world terms. It is too much to expect, however, that the 
farmer will carry on his enterprise wholly under this altruistic 
stimulus during times of falling prices and under conditions 
far removed from world effects. Efficiency, from his view- 
point, must be measured in terms which apply directly to his 
farm, his family, and his community, if they are to be stimuli 
which urge him to greater effort. For him the problem of 
efficiency is a problem of adjustment to his own immediate 
physical and social environment. He measures his efficiency 
by whether he is winning his battle against nature, whether 
he is measuring up to the general standards of agricultural 
economy, whether he is making a success out of farming. He 
is also concerned with the condition of his family and com- 
munity life. He wants to know whether pathological ele- 
ments are continually developing in his home and neighbor- 
hood because of poor farming methods or poor community 
facilities. Furthermore, he is somewhat bound to measure 
the efficiency and adequacy of his life in terms of happy ad- 
justments between his farm and the city centers. If his con- 
tacts with the business enterprises of the city are unhelpful 
or unwholesome, he will consider it an agricultural inefficiency. 
Recently he has expanded his horizon until his problem of 
efficiency includes large groups of farmers and, in some eases, 
all farmers of the nation. He has become class conscious and 
is not only asking himself whether he is a man with a program 
of improvement and advancement but is also asking himself 
whether the whole class to which he belongs is a class or group 
with a program for improvement and advancement. His meas- 


36 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


ure of efficiency is no longer a static measure. He looks to the 
future and wants to know whether his outlook on the farm, 
and, indeed, whether the outlook of farming itself, is one of 
possible increasing success. This viewpoint of the farmer, 
even though tinged with selfishness, is one of the most signifi- 
cant things in the nature of the “Rural Problem” for it indi- 
cates that he is alive to his own problems and, being alive to 
them, will rapidly see to their solution. Some of the signifi- 
eant things to which this forward look and the progressive 
measures of efficiency have led, and which are of deepest sig- 
nificance to both rural and national life, may be summarized 
as constituting the nature of the rural problem. The modern 
farmer is looking to a better use of his soil, to better breeds of 
plants and animals, to the elimination of pests and parasites, 
all of which not only lead to more efficient farming but which 
make the nation a more powerful producing agricultural unit 
and furnish the world a greater amount of foodstuffs and 
other raw products. He is looking to an increasing use of 
machine power, which, added to the factor just listed, has 
already made it possible for him to support an ever growing 
urban and national population and at the same time make his 
own enterprise more efficient and more pleasant. He is bent 
on learning better business methods and creating more effi- 
cient market and exchange relationships. These are not only 
progressive measures for his own efficiency but measures which 
will undoubtedly eliminate much of the waste which has at- 
tached itself to these processes in the past. Finally, the prob- 
lem of rural efficiency must be measured, and is being meas- 
ured, by the criteria of whether farming is a mere occupation 
or a real profession and whether the farmer is a person who is 
successful enough and forward looking enough to be planning 
for a better home, a better church, a better school, better 
means of transportation and communication, better health 
conditions, better recreation facilities, more opportunity for 
sociability, higher moral ideals, and a more adequate com- 
munity life. 

The Influence of Farming on Other Great Nation-wide 
Occupations.—The interest shown by other industries and the 


THE RISE AND NATURE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM — 37 


people of other occupations in farm production and farm 
prices shows how thoroughly agriculture is woven into all 
of our business relationships. Such interest is often looked 
upon by the farmer as attempts to fix the prices of his prod-— 
ucts. Be this as it may, the fact that other great business 
enterprises take farming into their business calculations is 
sufficient proof that he cannot be left out of a consideration 
of the nature of the rural problem. 

Nothing is more foolish than to think of the rural problem 
as a simple or a single problem. The destinies of over fifty 
million rural dwellers and the future of a great nation rest far 
more upon the growing consciousness of its significance, a thor- 
ough analysis of its elements and a deliberate attempt at its 
solution than upon many other problems to which students of 
society, statesmen, and the general public have given serious 
concern. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Carver, T. N., Select Readings in Rural Economics, pp. 5-31, Ginn and Com- 
pany, New York, 1916. 

Scumipt and Ross, Readings in Economic History of American Agriculture, 
pp. 573-82, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1925. 

BurterFieLp, K. L., The Farmer and the New Day, The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1919 

Report of the Commission on Country Life, Sturgis and Walton Company, 
New York, 1911. 

Quick, H., The Real Trouble with the Farmer, Bobbs-Merrill Company, 
Indianapolis, Indiana, 1924. 


CHAPTER III 
FARMING AND FARM PEOPLE 
THE PEOPLE OF RURAL AMERICA 


The Amount of Our Rural Population—There were in 1920, 
51,398,144 people living in what the United States Census 
classified as rural areas. This classification included all who 
lived in towns or villages with less than 2,500 inhabitants. 
Over 48 per cent (48.6 per cent) of all the people who live 
in the forty-eight states of the United States live in rural 
areas; 40.1 per cent of the national population lives in the 
open country or unincorporated villages. The rural popula- 
tion of the nation has increased every decade since the first 
colonists settled in this country. There has, however, been a 
smaller per cent of our total population living in the open 
country with each succeeding decade. This is just another 
way of saying that with the increase in our national popula- 
tion an increasing proportion of the people have come to live 
in cities. The following table gives the data for the last five 
decades. 


TaBLeE I.—DISTRIBUTION OF NATIONAL POPULATION BETWEEN RURAL AND 
URBAN AREAS SINCE 1880 


Year Rural Population, Urban Population, 
Per cent Per cent 
LB SO Me Nee rade he tetera ere 70.5 29.5 
Bo} 2 OA ae hay tl pavers ayy (AT 63.9 36.1 
LOOG Son a kehy wait hey 1 Uiceui ne 59.5 40.5 
LOLO A rae ge ee ang vee 53.7 46.3 
1920) 7 tat toeretaals iste ts 48.6 51.4 








The percentage decline in rural population should not sug- 
gest a lessening magnitude of American rural society and its © 
38 


FARMING AND FARM PEOPLE 39 


problems. We have today the largest rural population of our 
national history. Nor as we pointed out in Chap. II need we 
be deeply concerned because people are leaving the farms for 
the city, unless there are inherent in rural society defects so 
damaging as to handicap the efficiency and welfare of those 
who reside upon the farm. 

The cities have grown more rapidly in population than the 
country areas because a great majority of the immigrants 
coming to the United States have gone into the cities and 
because improved farm machinery and the removal of many 
refining processes from the farm have made it possible for the 
agricultural population to produce enough raw products to 
support an ever-increasing national population. 

The Character of Rural Population —The character of the 
rural population is more significant than the amount of rural 
population. Population composition is usually measured. It 
is normal age and normal sex distribution and the ethnic con- 
stituents of the population that make for normal social life 
in many ways. At the present time the rural areas have an 
excess of people under fifteen years of age, a deficiency of 
those between fifteen and forty-five years of age and nearly 
the same distribution as cities in the ages of forty-five years 
and over. This condition is probably accounted for by the 
fact that immigrants who usually rank in the middle-age 
eroups make up a comparatively small portion of the rural 
population. Then, too, the migration from the country to the 
city is heavier among those who have reached or approached 
the age of maturity and who are less than forty-five years of 
age. The general effects of such a situation are that it gives 
the rural districts more than their share of the burden of 
educating the youth of the country, depletes the rural popu- 
lation of a portion of people in the ages of early maturity just 
when they are in the virile stages of their lives, robs the open 
country of the advancement and progress which such people 
usually promote and lessens the proportion of the rural popu- 
lation who are in the economic producing groups. 


\ 
) 
} 


40 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Dr. C. J. Galpin, of the United States Department of Agri- 
culture, presents the following facts about the significance of 
the age distribution of rural people: 


In the total farm population of the country (1920) 25.7 per cent 
are under ten years of age. Put in concrete form: In a unit of 
10,000 farm people 1,900 young people would be non-producing 
children. The farm unit would be carrying a handicap of 670 
children, and the city would, theoretically, have 670 more producers. 
In the 30,000,000 city group there are 2,000,000 fewer children 
under ten years of age than in 30,000,000 farm people. .. . The 
extra burden of . . . children to rear and educate, with 2,000,000 
fewer producers to do it, raises a serious question on the score of 
how to do it. It is evident that the farm population is pouring this 
continuous surplus of adolescents, ready reared and ready educated 
by farm people, into city groups as producers of city wealth. 


An equal number of males and females is generally con- 
sidered best for a normal and balanced social life. The bal-_ 
ance between the two sexes is maintained by the laws of 
nature and our social structure, chiefly through the institution 
of monogamic families, is built upon this distribution. In the 
United States as a whole the ratio of males to females is about 
104 to 100, chiefly due to an excessive male immigration from 
other countries. The rural districts have about 110 males to 
100 females. This is probably due to the fact that practically 
all the wage and salary-earning positions open to women are 
in cities. If there were not such easy communication between 
urban and rural areas this excess of males would probably lead 
to vice and immorality, as it undoubtedly does in the frontier 
areas of the west and northwest sections of the nation where 
the ratio of men to women is far in excess of that in other sec- 
tions of the nation. The fact that a larger portion of both 
men and women living in rural areas are married than is the 
case in cities indicates that the excess of females in cities has 
_done more to upset the normal balance of social life there than 
the excess of males has in the open country. 

The Movement of Rural Population—Farm economic and 
social life competes with city economic and social life for the 


* Proceedings Sixth National Country Life Conference, 1923, University of 
Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 


FARMING AND FARM PEOPLE 4] 


population of the nation. A somewhat similar competition 
goes on between the different rural sections of the nation. 
These competitions lead to a continuous shifting of rural 
people. How great this shifting is it is impossible to know, 
but some of the facts that are ascertainable indicate signifi- 
cant tendencies in present rural society. Rural population 
changes should be measured in two ways in order to get the 
full knowledge of what is happening in our national social 
structure; first by the absolute shifts, which mean that specific _ 
people have moved from one place to another and second, by 
the relative increase in population which shows which areas 
are becoming more densely populated, which are static and 
which are actually losing people. 

From the beginning of our national history until very re- 
cently land opportunities have been the chief exciting forces 
which stimulated the movements in our population. As early 
as 1676, following King Philip’s War, the lure of land began to 
pull settlers out of the earliest colonies. The movement into 
adjacent lands was steady but slow for a hundred years. Pop- 
ulation moved west into Pennsylvania and south down the 
Piedmont Plateau. Some fur traders followed the Ohio and 
other rivers considerably farther into the west. Daniel Boone, 
during this period, crossed the mountains and got as far west 
as Tennessee and Missouri.t The continuous movement west- ’ 
ward in search of land opportunities during the second century 
of our national life reached almost a stage of exodus and 
migration during the last half of the nineteenth century. 
The statement was made by a transitory observer in 1817 that, 
“Old America seems to be breaking up and moving westward.” 
Many New England towns had more population in 1790 than 
they had in 1810 or 1820. This movement continued until 
the great central valleys of the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri 
rivers were populated after which it continued more slowly.? 

Since 1900, the shifting of population has been stimulated 
by different forces than those which dominated up to that 


*Turner, F. J., The Frontier in American History, pp. 67-125, Henry Holt 
and Company, New York, 1921. 

*Scumipt and Ross, Readings in the Economic History of American Agri- 
culture, Chap. VIII, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1925. 


42 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


time. Now only specific agricultural causes, such as the open- 
ing of Indian reservations, in Oklahoma and South Dakota, 
or the promotion of irrigation areas, make any great disturb- 
ance in settled population. The currents are now stimulated 
by industrial development. Most of the 2,000 counties which 
increased in population between 1910 and 1920 included 
within their borders some industrial development. On the 
other hand, most of the 1,000 counties which declined in popu- 
lation during this decade were rural counties. 

Space does not permit of a detailed or statistical presenta- 
tion of these more recent movements of rural population. 
From the facts already given it is apparent that the chief 
movement is from the rural to urban centers; that it is of 
persons who are in the early years of maturity, and that it is 
to a large degree from the areas less favorably endowed with 
natural resources into those more favorably endowed. ‘The 
shift among the rural people from one agricultural area to 
another agricultural area largely ceased with the end of the 
great movement into free lands. In addition to the move- 
ment thus far mentioned, there are the continued shiftings of 
farm tenants and other landless tillers of the soil from one 
farm to another and from one community to another. 

If we attempt to list and classify the movements of rural 
population, we must say that from the beginning of our 
national history until about 1900, certainly until 1890, the 
movements were westward into new agricultural regions and 
since that time have been cityward into industrial centers. 
The cause of the movement in the first instance was almost 
wholly the lure of land opportunities. The causes of the lat- 
ter movement are the lure of higher wages, shorter hours, 
and apparently better economic opportunity of city occupa- 
tions; the lure of better educational and social institutions of 
the city; and the lure of the pleasure advantages of city life. 
In addition to these are the seasonal movements of farm 
laborers to and from the wheat, beet, cranberry, and other 
types of farm fields, and the continuous shiftings of landless 
persons and families who because of their poor living condi- 


FARMING AND FARM PEOPLE 43 


tions and meagre economic incomes seek year after year to 
mitigate these facts by moving from farm to farm. 

The results of these movements are not yet well analyzed. 
Certain it is that people do not leave the place of their birth 
and the community and family life into which their lives and 
interests are woven without what seems to them adequate 
cause. There must be, therefore, in rural life stern forces at_ 
work which affect those who stay on the farm, though often 
unconsciously, as well as those who leave. Yet more certain 
is it that stable and efficient community life is seriously handi- 
capped by the sudden influx and exodus of seasonable labor 
and by any large number of shifting tenant and hired-men 
families. An attempt at surveying the occupation of agricul- 
ture should offer some suggestion toward analysis and give us 
some appreciation of the general social significance of the 
problems involved. 


THE OCCUPATION OF FARMING 


Farming as a National Enterprise —Few large communities 
or great groups of people have ever existed without farming 
as one of their basic economic enterprises. It has been said _ 
that when the world was created farming began. While this — 
statement is not entirely correct, it is true that no society 
above the “hunting and fishing” stage has ever existed without 
some agricultural pursuit. Agriculture was in time, and is in 
importance, the first of the great modern industries. 

Farming has passed through many stages and is today of 
many types. The peasant farming of Middle and Southern 
Europe, the great small-grain farming of Canada, Australia, 
and Argentine, the crude farming of the Philippine Islands, 
the intensive farming of Belgium and Holland, the dairy farm- 
ing of Denmark, horticulture and viticulture are but a few 
examples of the many forms of enterprise which the occupa- 
tion of farming may take. We have in the United States 
practically all these different types of farming. Lach 1s car- 
ried on in a different section of the country, many times by 
people of different national stock, and each develops its 


44 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


distinct culture, type of community, and mode of life. 
Through all these types, however, there run similarities. 
Farmers the world over are more like each other than they are 
like any other occupational group. When we confine our- 
selves to our own national group the similarity becomes 
greater. There is, therefore, sufficient likeness in these agri- 
cultural environmental influences, in the types of work and 
the modes of life of American agriculturalists to make it pos- 
sible to generalize about the occupation of farming, its mode 
of life and its national importance. 

We still have practically one-half of our population living 
upon the farm or in villages which depend almost wholly 
upon farming. Of the 42,000,000 persons gainfully employed 
in the United States, 26.3 per cent of them are agriculturists. 
Our manufacturing and mechanical pursuits combined include 
only 30.8 per cent of those gainfully employed, about two 
million more persons than are operating in the enterprise of 
farming. The group, classified in the census report as Manu- 
facturing and Mechanical, includes every type of worker 
from dressmaking and baking to manufacturing iron and 
steel. The occupational group standing third in the list is 
“Trade.” It includes only about one-third as many persons 
as does agriculture. Only a little more than one million farm 
women are Classified as being gainfully employed. If those 
women whose duties and enterprises, such as poultry raising, 
butter making, ete., which make them deserving of being 
classified as gainfully employed, were to be counted, the agri- 
culturists would constitute over one-third of all the gainfully 
employed in the United States. There is no other occupa- 
tional group in the world that constitutes so composite and 
mighty an influence as do our 18,000,000 American farmers. 

One-fifth of our total national wealth is in farms. One- 
third of our national wealth is in the open country. Corn is 
our greatest national product. Cotton is our greatest export 
article. When we add livestock and wheat production, we 
begin to appreciate the magnitude of our farming industry. 
The value of all our farm products in 1919 was $25,000,- 
000,000. The value of our agricultural exports that year was 


FARMING AND FARM PEOPLE 45 


over $4,000,000,000. Farmers during that year practically fed 
themselves, and furnished most of the food supply for our 
great urban population and furnished 53 per cent of our ex- 
port values.* 

It is scarcely possible to overestimate the function and in- 
fluence of the farm enterprise in our national life. One crop 
failure over any large percentage of our farming area results in 
a commercial crisis, and a series of such failures inevitably 
results in a thoroughgoing industrial depression. ‘The success 
or failure of the farming industry has more to do with our 
national prosperity than any other one thing. A complete 
failure of the national wheat crop during one year in the 
United States, in addition to reducing hundreds of farmers to 
insolvency, would lessen the actual purchasing power of the 
nation by millions of dollars. It would close down hundreds 
of mills and other refining industries which depend upon 
wheat as raw products; would lessen the annual earning power 
of all transportation lines, national and international; would 
have serious influence upon our balance of trade with other 
nations; would tie up millions of dollars in farm mortgage 
credits; destroy the business of large groups of commission 
men and other middlemen, and would so increase the price of 
bread to all consumers as to eliminate it from thousands of 
American family tables. The nation can indeed well afford 
to see that her great farm life and farm population is well 
cared for and her farm business carefully planned. 

It is of concern to our industrial life whether the farmer is 
performing adequately his stewardship of the soil, whether 
he is getting a fair reward for his labor and investment, 
whether we have a right balance between urban and rural 
dwellers and especially between urban and rural enterprises, 
whether transportation and communication facilities leading 
to and from the farm are adequate, whether we are giving 
farmers educational opportunities, political expression, and in 
every way most thoughtful consideration. Whether our farm- 
ing is efficient and whether our farm population is prosperous 
and happy is indeed a problem of national importance. 


*United States Pepartment of Agriculture Yearbook, 1920, p. 1777. 


46 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


The Influence of Agriculture on Our International Relation- 
ships—We have already noted the dominant role played by 
the occupation of agriculture in our national lfe and in our 
export trade. Other nations still look upon us as an agricul- 
tural nation. During the World War they measured our 
strength and assistance more by our power to furnish raw food 
products than by any other one thing. At all times they 
have depended upon our farms to supply the raw products for 
their factories. American crop failures are almost as serious 
to them as to our own people. Furthermore, our exports of 
agricultural products are so great that our favorable balance 
of trade depends very largely upon the success of the occupa- 
tion of farming. It would probably be false fear and false 
pride to imagine that we must forever maintain among the 
nations of the world our dominant position in agriculture or 
sacrifice our world status. It is nevertheless true that our 
whole body of economic international relationships must, and 
will, be altered in the near future unless the great enterprise 
of farming is regarded and cared for in terms of its vital inter- 
national importance. 

The Relation of Farming to Other Business Enterprises.— 
The facts already stated indicate the relation of farming to 
some other business enterprises. Many other enterprises de- 
pend almost wholly upon the products of the farm to sustain 
them. Railroads received, in 1921, 24.4 per cent of all their 
tonnage from the farms and forests; 32.8 per cent of their 
total tonnage was either raw or refined agricultural products; 
36.6 per cent of all revenue freight cars were used in hauling 
raw farm products, and 45 per cent in hauling either raw or 
refined farm products. In the “western section,” 54.1 per cent 
of all cars were used in hauling farm products, and 60.5 per 
cent were used in hauling either raw or refined farm products. 
It was but a few years back in our national history that they 
received 75 per cent of their freight tonnage from agricultural 
sources. The great railroad building era was synonymous 
with the opening up of vast agricultural areas in the Middle 
West, West, and Southwest. It is scarcely an exagecration 


FARMING AND FARM PEOPLE 47 


to say that the majority of the railroad mileage in the United 
States has been built either to serve new areas of agriculture, 
or in contemplation of agricultural development. Flour mills, 
cotton and woolen mills, packing plants, creameries, cheese 
factories, and numerous other refining and manufacturing in- 
dustries are absolutely dependent on the products of the farm. 
In fact, all great enterprises except mining, quarrying, fishing, 
and oil production find either the source of their raw products, 
or sale for their goods in the farm enterprise. The middleman 
is no exception to the rule. He may be more indirectly, and 
in less degree, dependent upon the raw products of the farm. 
If this is so, 1t is only because he is a middleman, playing be- 
tween the farm and other industries or between two or more 
industries neither of which may be farming. 

As was noted above many other occupations depend upon 
farmers to furnish them with the raw products necessary for 
the operation of their enterprises. They are, therefore, inter- 
ested in the amount and type of farm products produced. 
Cities which a few years ago gave no thought to the successes 
and failures of their surrounding agricultural territory are 
today developing “production bureaus,” ‘‘extension bureaus,” 
and even farm advisors. It is quite the habit for railroads, 
express companies, and some manufacturing concerns to de- 
velop and maintain elaborate educational schemes for helping 
farm production and marketing. 

Small towns especially are gradually coming to recognize 
that their very existence and life depends on the great enter- 
prise of farming in the territory in which they are located. 
Furthermore, all men, no matter what their occupations, wear 
clothes and eat food, the prices of which depend partly, if not 
largely, on farm production. All that is necessary to make 
men of all occupations and walks of life realize how dependent 
they are upon the occupation of farming is to develop in them 
an intelligence concerning the facts of their own existence. 
We may, therefore, in the future expect to see men of other 
occupations and professions become more and more interested 
in and concerned about the enterprise of farming. 


48 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 
FARM LIFE 


Farming as an Enterprise—The great occupations and pro- 
fessions of society are entered and pursued by people because 
they find either immediate satisfaction in these pursuits or 
because they expect some day to get satisfaction from having 
pursued them. These satisfactions are gotten either out of 
their daily work, the money which their enterprise yields or 
from the conditions under which they live. Farmers probably 
less than any other class of people analyze their occupations 
in terms of these differential facts. They do know, however, 
whether they are living in prosperity or poverty, whether they 
are getting enjoyment out of their work and leisure, and 
whether they consider living on farms and in a rural com- 
munity acceptable. | 

Farming is in a middle position so far as money making is 
concerned. It is neither a big moneymaking nor a poor 
moneymaking enterprise. This is true because farming, for 
the most part, is not carried on as a “big business.” It is 
generally a family affair. The amount of capital is limited, 
and production is not carried on in a large enough scale to 
yield the enormous profits, either gross or net, that can be 
made in corporate, trust, or even big partnership organiza- 
tions. On the other hand, farm products in themselves gen- 
erally insure a living to the farmer and his family. He, as a 
tiller of the soil, never becomes a millionaire; neither does he, 
except in extreme cases, become a pauper. His actual return 
on investment is, throughout the whole nation, less than 4 per 
cent and his capital holdings are on the average too small for 
him to accrue a very large net income. Yet he is generally 
richer at the end of each year than he was at the beginning of 
that year. This 1s more universally true of the farmer than 
of any group of men who work with their hands. On the 
other hand, farming has probably developed fewer really rich 
men than any other one of our great industries in which men 
have capital invested. 

Since it is not the purpose of this chapter to make a thor- 

oughgoing economic analysis of the farming enterprise, but 


FARMING AND FARM PEOPLE 49 


simply to give the reader an appreciation of where farming 
stands when measured by monetary standards, we can prob- 
ably best summarize this section by listing, categorically, 
the arguments for and against farming as a business prospect. __ 

The arguments against farming would run in broad gen- | 
eralization somewhat as follows: (1) There are greater re- 
turns, possibly, from other business enterprises, for instance, 
from the manufacturing or transportation enterprise, or even 
from such expert professions as those of lawyers and doctors. 
(2) Farming being more or less a seasonal trade, the farmer 
is liable to have little ready cash, except at certain seasons of 
the year. (3) His credit facilities are generally poor. He 
cannot compete with speculators for short-time loans and 
money lenders do not want to tie up their money in long- 
time loans. (4) He has all the shortcomings of a private 
isolated firm in his power to mobilize capital and in his power 
to control his supply of goods. Thus he is often beaten in 
world competition. 

The arguments in favor of farming as a business enter- 
prise might be stated as follows: (1) His investments are 
relatively safe. The great financial losses do not occur in 
farming as they do in the more speculative enterprises. (2) 
He is comparatively free from the price régime, 7.e., his life 
and death do not depend upon the price of his products in 
the direct way that a hired laborer’s or manufacturer’s do. He 
can, if necessary, live from his own garden, fields, flocks, and 
herds. (8) His whole family can work as a unit in his busi- 
ness enterprise to both their economic and social advantage. 
(4) His business is little subject to industrial wars, labor up- 
heavals, strikes, lockouts, and other phases of industrial strife. 

It must be concluded, then, that farming as a pure business 
_ enterprise, while it offers little opportunity for accumulation 
of great fortunes, nevertheless does offer a fairly satisfactory 
business outlook. 

Farm Infe as a Desirable Mode of Living—The conditions 
both physical and spiritual under which persons work day 
by day, year in and year out, are influences which are so 
constant, even though we are unconscious of them, that they 


50 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


make up the atmosphere from which people and groups im- 
bibe the very texture and fiber of personality and character. 
The things that people do day by day dictate, or in fact are 
their modes of life. The man is what his habits are and his 
habits are made up of the things which he repeatedly or 
continually does. A man’s occupation, therefore, more than 
any other one thing places him in his social group or class. 
Farm people because of this fact are to a degree different 
in their thinking from all other classes of people. Traditions 
eet attached to continually repeated modes of activity and 
many times continue as modes of thinking long after the 
forms of activity themselves have changed. Because of this 
fact the modes of activities of previous generations, especially 
of generations immediately preceding and related to the pres- 
ent one, influence the present generation’s way of looking at 
things. The farmer is different in his mode of life and mode 
of thinking, not only because he lives under different circum- 
stances and constitutes a definite occupational or professional 
group, but because this group has a long occupational history. 
Let us summarize these influences as they register themselves 
in the farmer’s mode of life and mode of thinking. 

The occupation of farming is carried on under different 
physical and social conditions from any other occupation. 
Farming is carried on under the most extreme isolation of any 
of our occupations. The fact that the farmer works hundreds 
or even thousands of days during his lifetime in solitude can 
not help but make of him a different man from the city 
dweller, who is practically never out of the sight of other 
persons. The fact that his family group so completely over- 
shadows the influence of all other social groups must register 
itself in his personality and his thinking. The fact that he 
has practically no opportunity to observe the technical 
processes of other industries robs him of valuable stimuli to 
thought. He lives and works in the great out-of-doors, is 
stimulated by fresh air, buffeted by the elements, observes 
and works with growing, blooming and bearing things. All 
these things reflect themselves in a very subtle manner in 
his moods, temperament, and character. His isolation, while 


FARMING AND FARM PEOPLE d1 


it robs him of social and industrial contacts, is not all bad in 
its influence. It gives him a freedom from the complexities, 
nervous strain, and menace of evil influences which are typical 
of large sections of congested city areas. It gives him a degree 
of independence and individual initiative which is not pos- 
sible where people live in great masses, makes him his own 
boss, the master of his own daily work, and the head of his 
own family. These facts also register themselves in his per- 
sonality and make of him a different citizen from any other 
known to the nation. 

In addition to these constant influences of environment and 
processes just described, there are certain purely occupational 
necessities which make his mode of life pleasant or unpleas- 
ant, as the case may be. His work is much of it hard manual 
labor. He is, therefore, often subject to a fatigue which is 
not only unpleasant in itself but which is often so extreme 
that it stultifies his moments of leisure and makes him less 
capable of carrying on efficiently the thinking and planning 
which give him a creative interest in his occupation and a 
brighter outlook on life. Furthermore, his manual labor is, 
much of it, such as to demand a use of gross strength rather _ 
than to cause him to make subtle adjustments; and it is 
out of the necessity of making subtle adjustments that the 
finer modes of thinking come. In contrast to this, is the fact 
that he works at diversified tasks. One day he does this, the 
next day something else, and during each day he does many 
different things. This demand for diversification of activity, 
while it may not induce higher thought processes, does de- 
velop habits of individual judgment and gives an opportunity 
for individual initiative. This fact, plus the fact that he is 
his own boss—in most cases owns his business, and is con- 
fronted with a good opportunity to own his own farm—does 
more to add zest and outlook to his life than any other set 
of facts. 

The stultifying effects of the monotonous routine on the 
farm woman are even worse than those on the farm man. 
Her adjustments are not so much to the stern forces of 
nature as they are to the farm routine and to human processes, 


52 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


which are essential to the organization of the farm work. In 
addition she must care for members of the family. She is 
robbed of much of the exultation and interest which goes 
with the out-of-doors life. She is likely to have less ma- 
chinery with which to do her work; her hours are longer even 
than those of the farm man; her work is more routine and 
less creative. Her adjustments are more varied and subtle 
for they are largely adjustments to human beings and to 
processes which are carried on by some one other than her- 
self. She must fit her work into the more important processes 
of plant and animal production upon the farm and these 
processes are directly under someone else’s control. The solu- 
tion of the problem of rural welfare demands first and fore- 
most a program of happy life for the men and women who 
operate the farms. 

We have already referred to the isolation of the American 
farm and the lack of contact with neighbors and other people. 
These should be listed as weak spots and stultifying in- 
fluences of our rural communities. They are, we are con- 
vineed, a transient and rapidly passing weakness. Because 
of this fact and because this has been already alluded to and 
will be discussed from many angles further on, we will pass 
them by with the hope that the next section will reveal not 
only their significance but will indicate the direction in which 
their solution must lie. 

It would be not only unfair to the farmer, but untrue to 
the facts, not to note that there are forces and tendencies at 
work in the processes of farming and in the life of rural com- 
munities which have shown their power to alter much that 
we have just described. The modern husbandman is as 
different from the traditional farmer of two decades ago as 
this traditional farmer was different from the backwoodsman 
who hewed his small farm plot out of the primeval forest 
and lived his life of somber melancholy in proud isolation. 
Every step in the progress of farming has brought new meth- 
ods of action and new modes of thought. The modern farmer 
does not live within isolation as a matter of pride. He secks 
to overcome it. He does not trust to signs of the moon for 


FARMING AND FARM PEOPLE 53 


guidance but turns to the agricultural college experiment 
station, farm bulletin, and farm journal, for direction and 
assistance. He no longer farms only with the hoe, shovel, 
and pitchfork but with the tractor, self binder, and hay loader. 
He no longer works sixteen hours every day and drags to bed 
too tired to think or even talk. He has his telephone, his 
daily paper, his automobile, his country and city neighbors, 
and his leisure time. The consequence is that he not only 
lives in a different farming process but in a different society, 
has a different mode of life, and different type of thought. 

The coming of science and machines into farming has so 
lightened his work and increased his productive capacity that 
he has more leisure time and more opportunity to spend it 
profitably. The increase in leisure time has two very sig- 
nificant effects upon the life of the farmer: it gives him more 
opportunity for reading, for planning his work, and for con- 
tacts with other people and it releases him from the mental 
paralysis which results from continuous fatigue. Further- ) 
more, the very processes of scientific and machine farming are 
direct stimuli to thinking. Farming with power and riding 
machines give him, in themselves, a degree of leisure time 
in comparison to the process of plodding all day long behind 
the team and being compelled to control by brute force the 
direction and operation of the farm implement. The more 
complex farm machines give him new problems altogether. 
He does not, like the common factory worker, merely feed the 
machine. He operates it, masters its technologies, repairs it, 
experiments with it, and in so doing finds himself dealing 
not with problems of mere force but with processes, inven- | 
tion, and manipulation. This fact, coupled with the yet © 
more subtle and creative control and manipulation of plant 
and animal production according to scientific methods, has 
resulted in two very significant facts. First, it has increased 
his power to control, master, and use the forces of nature and 
has lessened the buffeting influences of nature upon him. 
Second, it has largely increased the mysteries of nature and 
given him a greater faith in his own creative power than in 
the power of tradition and signs. 


54 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Another set of tendencies and another set of inventions 
have entered his community and institutional life. With his 
ereater amount of leisure and his more efficient production 
has come an opportunity and a desire for more human con- 
tacts. At the same time, the telephone, the rural free deliv- 
ery, the daily paper, the radio, and the automobile have be- 
come available to him. Each of these has widened his circle 
of human contacts and made them a more constant and stable 
part of his habits and thoughts. Furthermore, they subject 
him to the constant influences of the larger neighborhood, 
community, nation and world. These larger human groups 
become a part of his thinking, a part of his planning, a part 
of his life. Institutions take on a new significance to him. 
Good roads, schools, churches, and neighborhood centers are 
all now a part of his scheme of existence. They can all be 
made either to promote the techniques of farming, the busi- 
ness of farming, or to change the mode of farm life. He 
has, therefore, a vision of their usefulness to him and his 
usefulness to them which means a future for them such as 
their past has never been. They, in turn, together with the 
many other institutions and agencies which exist in this new 
and larger environment of his, will continue to push forward 
and accelerate the processes and tendencies which are making 
the modern farmer, and remaking the face of the open country. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Giuette, J. M., Rural Sociology, Chap. VI, The Macmillan Company, New 
POrkwnLooes 

Gavpin, C. J., Rural Social Problems, Chap. XIII, The Century Company, 
New York, 1924. | 

Scumipt and Ross, Readings in the Economic History of American Agri- 
culture, Chap. VII and VIII, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1925. 

Youna, HE. C., The Movement of Farm Population, Bulletin 426, New York 
Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, New York, 1923. 

GaupIN and Nassen, Farm Population of Selected Counties, Department of 
Commerce, Bureau of Census, Washington, D. C., 1924. 


CHAPTER IV 
FARM LABOR 
WHO IS TO DO THE WORK UPON THE FARM? 


Sources of Farm Labor Supply.—Those who make the farm 
labor supply consist of the farm operator himself; other mem- 
bers of his family—the wife and children—permanent hired 
men and women; transient or seasonal laborers; professional 
groups—threshing, shelling, and shredding gangs; and ex- 
change laborers, and neighbors. In addition to these sources 
of farm labor there are the work animals and machines. The 
non-human elements and the extent to which they are used 
have much to do with the problem of supplying sufficient 
labor force and a great deal to do with the ease or difficulty 
with which the labor is accomplished by the laborer. Their 
significance will be discussed later. Here we are interested 
in the human sources, the difference between these sources, 
the extent to which the various sources are employed on the 
farm, the difficulty in obtaining them, the reasons for these 
difficulties, and, above all, the effect upon individual, family, 
and community life of farm labor and farm laborers. 

That there is a scarcity of farm labor is almost universally 
asserted by farmers. Whether one thinks there is or not, 
depends upon the point of view from which the facts are 
discussed. Some mean by the scarcity of farm labor that 
hired men can no longer be had for $20 per month. Some 
mean that there is not a sufficient amount of floating labor in 
the country to fill the seasonal demands of the harvest time. 
Some mean that labor cannot be had without paying enough 
wages to attract city laborers to the country. Some mean 
that farmers’ wives and children are too often compelled to 
work in the field. Some mean that agricultural production is 
being restricted because farmers would rather leave their land 

55 


56 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


idle than to pay what they think are exorbitant wages. 
Finally, some mean that agricultural production is not suffi- 
ciently remunerative to make it possible to compete with 
other industries for the labor supply of the nation. Those who 
accept the last interpretation may feel with others that such 
a condition is a calamity, or they may assert that it is a condi- 
tion, which, if not tampered with, will some time rectify itself 
by reducing agricultural production and by so doing raise agri- 
cultural prices to a level high enough to make it possible to 
pay an attractive scale of farm wages to the men who now 
are working at city occupations. Whichever of these interpre- 
tations is correct, it is true that farmers almost universally 
assert that they have difficulty in getting enough labor to carry 
on their operations satisfactorily. Furthermore, it is univer- 
sally known that thousands of persons, who at one time were 
working upon our farms, are now working in city occupations 
and that few have left other occupations to enter agriculture. 
Whether the farms should have a greater or a lesser pro- 
portion of our national laboring population than they now 
have is an economic problem, and a mooted one at that. We 
shall confine ourselves largely to a social interpretation of why 
there is difficulty in supplying our farms with labor. It is our 
faith that a complete understanding of these social facts will 
contribute much to an understanding of the economic facts. 

If when speaking of farm labor we are thinking of hired 
men, then it should be recognized that there is supposed to 
be a process inherent in the agricultural enterprise which con- 
tinually depletes the hired-man supply for the farms. Many 
men start their climb toward ultimate farm ownership as hired 
men. If they are successful they soon move up into the tenant 
stage. Once this step is successfully taken they are no longer 
available as hired men. Indeed, they may themselves become 
employers of hired men. It is the difficulty of obtaining hired 
men more than anything else that has given rise to discus- 
sions of a depleted labor supply on our farms. 

The chief cause of the difficulty is that the city attracts the 
labor supply from the farms. It takes not only the floating 
end transient laborer and that class which used to constitute 


FARM LABOR 57 


our permanent hired men, but it attracts the farmers’ sons 
and daughters as well. It does so because the wage scale in 
the city seems high when compared with that of the farm; 
because the hours are regular and short in the city, while they 
are irregular and long on the farm; because the city furnishes 
entertainment and social opportunities for leisure hours and 
the country does not; because men work in gangs and in groups 
in the city and largely alone in the country; and because 
organized labor furnishes a means of securing better work- 
ing conditions in the city, while the rural laborer must accept 
his lot or leave. Even if the laborers were just as willing to 
work on the farm as in the city, the seasonal demand of farm- 
ing would make the situation hard to meet. It is estimated 
that 46 per cent of all demands for hired labor on the farm 
is for short-term laborers. During the planting season the 
demands are great; during the harvesting season they are 
abnormal; during the remainder of the year they are light. 
In many sections it is only during the two rush seasons that 
a demand for hired men exists. In those sections which prac- 
tice a one-crop system even the operator and his family are 
idle a great portion of the time. If these situations are to 
be met, the men who supply labor for the farms during the 
rush season must be mobile. The mobile, transient, or float- 
ing laborer is generally an inefficient laborer. The most effi- 
cient laborer is generally the man who is sufficiently inter- 
ested in his job to want to follow it as an occupation, and 
sufficiently interested in his home life to want to be with his 
family. He can do neither of these desirable things and assist 
in supplying the demand for transient, or seasonal, farm 
labor. It is estimated that 1,500,000 farmers use their hired 
men only a portion of the year. Unless agricultural pro- 
duction is so organized as to eliminate the demand for these 
ereat masses of transient laborers, it is inevitable that we 
shall continue to have difficulty in supplying our farm labor 
needs. 

Another phase of the lack of labor supply on the farm, 
though one which is not so widely advertised, is the impos- 
sibility of obtaining domestic or household assistance. The 


58 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


“hired girl,” except the negro hired woman, is practically 
a thing of the past. It is difficult now to obtain even negro 
women for domestic work on the farm. The only negro 
women who are within reach of the domestic household are 
the wives or the daughters of the negro hired men who are 
working for the farm operators. The fact that their hus- 
bands and fathers hold fairly remunerative jobs makes these 
women unwilling to work except in the “cotton patch” where 
they can be with great numbers of others and can draw rela- 
tively high wages. Another condition which makes it prac- 
tically impossible to obtain other than negro help is that 
many new industries have recently opened for women. These 
industries are all in the city. Once in a city the woman 
enters non-domestic occupations because they pay better 
wages and, even more, because foreign and colored domestic 
servants have made household work for wages a more or less 
disreputable occupation. On the farm the hours of the do- 
mestic servant, unless she be some one who merely drops in 
for the day, are unbearably long and the work exceedingly 
servile. The rural hired girl is more or less an outcast in the 
community. If she ever gets an opportunity to mingle with 
others of her age and to participate in any sort of recrea- 
tional life, it 1s when she avails herself of an invitation to 
go to some such affair as a public dance in a nearby city. 
Even then her escort is more than likely to have invited her 
with a conviction that her position indicates a possibility 
of his being able to practice some immorality with her. 
Farm Labor Problems.—It is almost impossible to suggest 
remedies for certain phases of the problem just outlined. 
Farmers, above all people, will not listen to plans or pro- 
grams which vary widely from their habitual practices, 
although the very plans suggested may be working elsewhere 
and may even be operating within a few years in their own 
communities. Gradually, however, the force of circumstance 
must discover a solution of this problem, for it is not to be ex- 
pected that the young men and young women of the future, 
any more than those of the present, will accept positions as 
hired laborers on the farms if conditions and opportunities 


FARM LABOR 59 


are more satisfactory elsewhere. In times past the “hired 
man” and the “hired girl” lived with, and were largely treated 
as members of, the farm family. Today, few young people 
are even found in these occupations. The great majority of 
hired laborers on the farms and in the farm house are mar- 
ried persons or transients. Furthermore, it seems desirable 
from every point of view to look to these older and more 
settled laborers to furnish the chief supply of hired men and 
women for our farms. If this is to be done, homes must be 
provided for them and they must be assured fairly permanent 
employment. This permanent employment may be afforded 
by the farmer himself adopting that type of farming which 
uses his labor force the greatest portion of the year or by 
allowing the laborer to farm a small plot of ground to raise 
poultry, or to carry on some other enterprise which will use 
his time remuneratively when he is not needed by the oper- 
ator. The homes must be provided by the operator and must 
be sufficiently adequate and attractive to make them desir- 
able places in which to live and rear families. 

As high a degree of standardization of hours and tasks as 
is possible on the farm must be adopted. The plea that farm 
work does not lend itself to standardization is of great force. 
The argument does not eliminate that very fact from being 
one of the chief difficulties in getting men to accept the posi- 
tions as farm laborers. The only thing to do is to accept 
the inevitable and push the process of standardization as far 
as possible. It is notable that the very situations which lend 
themselves least to the standardization of hours are the situa- 
tions which demand men in large numbers at given times. 
When men work in large groups there is always a tendency 
for them to force a set of standard hours. It is the harvesting 
or threshing gang and not the isolated farm hands who “stick 
their forks,’ or stop the particular task at a time acceptable 
to them. If the standardization of hours can be accom- 
plished at times like harvest and threshing it can be done, to 
a much greater degree, at other times and in other farm 
enterprises. At any rate, there seem to be two outstanding 
alternatives, either something must be done other than that 


60 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


which is the rule at present or the situation must be allowed 
to continue to develop in the direction of fewer and poorer 
farm laborers. Happily there are here and there those who 
have seen the necessity and desirability of attacking the 
problem. In the list of solutions presented below there ap- 
pears nothing which is not already practiced in one or more 
communities of the country, though, of course, all of these 
solutions do not appear and do not need to appear in any 
one community. 

Farm laborers must be furnished satisfactory residences. 
If the “hired man” is an unmarried man and of the same 
race as the operator who employs him, it will be necessary 
for him to be provided a home with the employing family. 
Here he should be as nearly upon an equal basis with other 
members of the family as possible. A possible alternative 
is to see that he is comfortably housed and well fed in the 
home of a married man on the place. If he is a married man, 
he should be furnished a comfortable, neat, and convenient 
home in which to live. Attached to the house should be a 
family garden, facilities for raising chickens, and an oppor- 
tunity to produce meat and milk for his family. The home 
of the “hired man” should in no way be an annex to that of 
the owner. It should have a separate mail box, a separate 
telephone, and all the outbuildings essential to a separate and 
private home. Any other condition will serve not only to 
degrade the hired man and his family, but will introduce into 
the community a standard of living which no community 
can afford, and will widen the breach between the social status 
of the hired man’s family and others of the community. 

Working hours on the farm must as far as possible be 
standardized. A sufficient number of surveys have been made 
to prove that the average field day of the farm laborer, whether 
hired man or operator, is between nine and ten hours.t To 
this is added from one to five hours of “chores,” depending 
upon the type of farming practiced by the operator. Ten 
hours a day including chores, is not an unreasonably long 


* TaYLor, H. C. and Back, J. D., “Farm Labor in Wisconsin,” Bulletin No. 
$16, Agricultural Experiment Station of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. 


FARM LABOR 61 


day’s work under conditions which exist in the farm enter- 
prise. If the hours are to exceed this length the laborer will 
be compelled to do the necessary things attached to his own 
separate home during the hours of the night and on Sundays. 
There are farms, and indeed whole farming sections, which 
consistently maintain such standard hours. Some of the oper- 
ators of the farms working under the system are the greatest 
advocates of the system. If such were not the case, and if 
such a conclusion were not warranted by direct observation of 
such a system at work, the idea would not be promoted as 
a workable one for other sections. 

The average pay for farm hands in 1917 was $28.87 with 
board, per month. This is an annual total of $346.44, pro- 
vided the employment is steady. The monthly wage without 
board was $40.43, or an annual total of $486.16, provided em- 
ployment was furnished throughout all twelve months of the 
year. During the harvest, the daily wage with board was 
$2.08, and without board $2.54. The daily wages during other 
than the harvest season was $1.56 with board and $2.02 with- 
out board. Since 1917, the daily and monthly wages have 
been greatly increased. Since the 1917 wage greatly exceeded 
that of the pre-war period, however, that year is probably fairly 
representative of normal conditions as we may expect them 
to be after readjustment has taken place. A comparison of 
these wages with those paid in other industries should serve 
to give up a deep appreciation of the fact that farm laborers 
will continue to drift into these other occupations and thus 
deplete the farm labor supply unless something is done. 
Blacksmiths’ wages for the year of 1917 averaged about $5 
per day. Bricklayers’ wages varied from $5 to $8 per day. Hod 
carriers’ wages varied from $2.25 to $4 per day, with about 
an average of $3. Plumbers, plasterers, and other so-called 
skilled laborers were receiving at this same period from $5 to 
$7.50 per day. Even the most poorly paid laborers of the 
most poorly paid big industry of the nation, the “boom boys” 


*Crop Reporter, March, 1918. For a later comparison the reader is Te 
ferred to, The Agricultural Situation, United States Department of Agri- 
culture, which reports regularly upon general trends of wages and prices. 


62 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


of the steel mill, were receiving a weekly wage of $10.62. This 
gave them an annual wage of $552.44 or $67 per year more 
than the average farm laborer without board received during 
that same year.t It is recognized that farmers may not be 
able to meet these scales of city wages and yet make farm- 
ing pay. This does not obviate the fact that they will have 
to do so or leave their farm labor problem unsolved. ‘This 
solution may lie outside of the farmer’s present scope of power. 
If so, we may expect him to develop a scope of power equal 
to the occasion through the means of controlling the profits 
of his enterprise by the development of farm-marketing or- 
ganizations, which will place him in a position to control 
prices of farm produce; or we may have to wait until the de- 
pleted labor supply on the farm makes itself felt in lessened 
production and consequently better farm prices. 

In some sections of the country, notably New England, 
farmers have developed supplementary industries which 
utilize the slack periods in profitable enterprises. There are 
a number of industries which lend themselves easily and prac- 
tically to the situation. Rope making, woven-wire making, 
chair and basket making, pottery, and even weaving and 
canning are all enterprises which can be conducted almost as 
profitably upon a small- as upon a large-scale production. 
Every one of them has been, or is being, practiced some place 
in the United States. They have usually developed in those 
sections, and at those times, when the profits from farming 
are low. Everyone will probably agree that it is more prac- 
tical to develop supplementary rather than conflicting crops, 
such as livestock and crops, than to introduce these handi- 
crafts. Since these other industries have been and are being 
used to advantage in some places, they should be mentioned 
as contributions to the solution of the problem of develop- 
ing a permanent and steady labor demand on the farm. 

There is, without question, a tendency toward specializa- 
tion of farm tasks, as well as a tendency toward specialized 
farming, taking place in American agriculture. The devel- 


* Monthly Review of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Vol. VI, 
1918, No. 2, pp. 123-137. 


FARM LABOR 63 


opment is so slow and the per cent of farm work done by 
these classes is so small that few are cognizant of the tend- 
ency. Threshing, shelling, shredding, and silo filling are 
examples of great fundamental farm tasks which are almost 
universally given over to specialists. Harvesting of small 
grain and even of corn and hay has at times and in places 
been taken over by these special groups also. Practically 
all blacksmithing, wagonsmithing and other shop work have 
long ago become artisan tasks. Butter and cheese making, 
and even butchering are fast disappearing from the farm. It 
is not inconceivable that the process of specialization might 
be carried much further. Some tasks of the farm do not 
lend themselves in the least to such a system. The chief 
thing which we may expect to be accomplished by the devel- 
opment of specialized groups is that the rush seasons’ demands 
may be taken care of in this way, leaving the resident farm 
forees to carry on that portion of the labor which would then 
present a fairly constant set of tasks. The development of 
such a system of farming is by no means a mere Utopian 
scheme. As has been stated, it is already rapidly developing 
in relation to certain farm tasks. Furthermore, there is not 
a farming community in the great mixed farming section of 
the Middle West which does not have its man or men who 
spend a large portion of their time in doing the great machine 
and gang tasks, such as have been mentioned. 

Employment agencies have for a long while been assisting 
in supplying farm laborers for the rush season. In the heart 
of the wheat belt, such cities as Topeka, Kansas City, Sioux 
Falls, Mitchell, and others have maintained free employment 
agencies during the harvest season. Commercial employ- 
ment agencies have assisted also. The United States Post 
Office Department and the United States Bureau of Labor 
have regular machinery for assisting, not only during the rush 
season, but at all times. The county farm bureaus and dem- 
onstration agents assist within their own counties and through 
their state organizations. In their larger state and national 
federations, they furnish agencies which should contribute 
much to the solution of the farm labor supply problems. 


64 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


For the last two decades city persons and even immigration 
officials have presented the idea of distributing a larger per 
cent of our immigrants to the farming districts. Farmers 
themselves have been inclined to look with disfavor upon the 
project. In New England, in the wheat fields of the West, 
and in a few other places, farmers have been willing to use the 
immigrant to supply the rush seasons’ demands. The immi- 
grant fits best into that type of farming which lends itself to 
European methods of agriculture. Furthermore, the immi- 
grant has demonstrated a marked tendency to attain land 
ownership as quickly as possible rather than to remain a 
“hired man.” From the farmers’ viewpoint this is no solution 
to the farm labor problem. From the nation’s viewpoint it 
may be exceedingly desirable to have these immigrants de- 
velop specialized farming, as the Seandinavians have devel- 
oped the dairy industry in Minnesota and Wisconsin, as the 
Italians and others have developed vegetable gardening and | 
horticulture and viticulture in some sections of New Eng- | 
land, and New Jersey and some sections of the South.t These > 
people contribute materially to the nation’s food supply and 
have shown a great capacity to develop or even reclaim those 
areas which have been neglected by our native American 
farmers. 

Domestic labor must be lightened and the hours shortened. 
None of the suggestions presented above directly touches the 
domestic labor problem. The removal of certain farm tasks 
from the farm and the handling of others by special groups 
lightens the work of the farm woman materially. Until some 
means is found, however, by which the hours of the house can 
be shortened and the work made lighter, there will continue to 
be difficulty in getting hired assistance. Whatever applies to 
the “hired girl’ applies to the housewife. Furthermore, if 
domestic servants continue to become harder to obtain, the 
housewife problem must automatically grow intense. Some 
steps have been taken in the direction of solving both prob- 
lems. There are a few instances where two domestic servants 
are employed and the work and hours are distributed in such 


1See Reports of Immigration Commission, Vol. I, pp. 559-70. 


FARM LABOR 65 


a way as very greatly to decrease the drawback to this type of 
employment. The particular instances referred to are cases 
where one girl arises at five o’clock in the morning and con- 
tinues to work until after the rush hours of noon, generally 
until about three o’clock in the afternoon. The other girl 
has the earlier hours of the forenoon to herself but assists from 
about ten o’clock until the evening work is completed. This 
utilizes the thirteen- or fourteen-hour day which is quite the 
rule over large sections, particularly during the rush seasons, 
adds an extra girl during the rush hours of the day, and yet 
reduces the hours of work for each of the girls and also the 
working hours of the house manager. If it were deemed de- 
sirable the hours could be reversed periodically. The problem 
of diminishing the work of the housewife and the whole gamut 
of house tasks will be discussed in the chapter on the farm 
home. It is sufficient to mention at this point that the solu- 
tion lies in the direction of modern household equipment and 
labor-saving devices. 


THE IRKSOMENESS OF FARM LABOR 


Farm Labor Is Manual Labor—Farm labor will for a long 
time to come continue to be manual labor. Manual labor is 
practically always irksome. This is especially true if the 
hours are long and the work heavy. We have already men- 
tioned at different points that farm labor hours are long and 
that much of farm work is heavy. We have attempted to 
make comparisons between working hours, tasks, and working 
conditions of farm laborers and those in other manual pur- 
suits. We have attempted to analyze the influence of farm 
work upon the life and thought of the agricultural laborer. 
The amount of manual work done on a farm during the cycle 
of a year is very great. The immensity of it during a life time 
is almost incomprehensible. During the period of a farmer’s 
lifetime he probably steps on every square inch of crust of 
earth on his farm and on part of it thousands of times. He 
handles much of it, lifts it, and moves it. He walks, in a 
single season of cultivation and harvest, hundreds of miles, 


66 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


sometimes for weeks, day after day in soft dirt. He handles 
hundreds and even thousands of tons upon the ends of fork 
and shovel handles. At times he is working at “break-neck” 
speed because of the rush of crops and conditions of weather. 
At other times his livestock keep him up at night. The 
woman’s work, while not so heavy, is just as irksome and far 
more routine and uninspiring. Her work hours average longer 
than those of the man. She comes nearer working 7 days 
each week and 365 days each year. The processes at which 
she works are repeated over and over. A description of her 
work at its worst would include from thirteen to sixteen hours 
a day, seven days a week, cooking meals and washing dishes 
three times each day, making beds every day, sweeping and 
scrubbing regularly, lifting heavy tubs and buckets, making 
clothes and mending them, canning fruits and vegetables, 
working up dairy products, doing the weekly washing and 
ironing, taking care of children, raising poultry and gathering 
eggs, often working in the garden, sometimes helping with the 
milking and other chores, and even at times assisting with the 
field work. Not even visitors can be invited into the house 
without adding to her burdens nor can she take a day off with- 
out working late into the night before going or upon returning. 
It is not only the immensity of her task and its deadening 
daily routine but the fact that her work is to such a degree 
incapable of organization that makes it irksome. She may be 
compelled to wash, cook, care for chickens, and answer all the 
demands of her children at one time. This is an extreme 
picture—extreme in that by no means all farm women follow 
such practices. There are, however, hundreds of them who 
do all these things and in addition rear large families and 
assist in the field work. Where they have nothing but the 
house tasks to perform, the picture is none too bright as we 
shall see when we discuss the organization of the rural home. 

Economic Effect of Labor-saving Machines on the Farm. — 
If there could be developed a system of farming by means of 
which the farmer and his family could man their own farm 
and home and could practice modern farming without forcing 
farm women into the field, violating child labor principles, or 


FARM LABOR 67 


robbing farm children of educational opportunities, and with- 
out subjecting all members of the family to inexcusably long 
hours, it would be a better solution of the farm labor problem 
than any system by means of which outside persons could be 
supplied to do farm tasks. It would be better, because it 
would obviate all the drawbacks to family and community 
life which come with the introduction of non-residents into 
these circles. It would be better, because it would decrease 
the difficulties which result when the outside persons are un- 
obtainable, as is so often the case during the rush seasons and 
almost universally true in the case of domestic servants. The 
introduction of machinery and other labor-saving devices is 
the only thing which suggests such a possibility at our present 
stage of extensive farming. Already field work is largely done 
by machine and horsepower. Riding implements of all kinds 
eliminate the necessity of walking all day over soft and un- 
even ground. These riding implements are almost universally 
so well equipped with levers and other mechanical devices as 
to make it no longer necessary for the farmer to use his own 
strength and body to guide and control them. He now ad- 
justs the machine, guides and oversees it, and drives the team 
or tractor. Actual hand work in the handling of some field 
crops is practically completely eliminated. Hay loaders and 
derricks, shredders, threshers, shellers, binders, tractors, and 
trucks, all motivated by horse, wind, or gasoline power, do 
the work he once did with his own hands. The presence of 
barns, sheds, and cribs, plus water systems and feeders of dif- 
ferent kinds, makes the work of handling livestock much 
lighter. The introduction of the truck and the automobile 
cut the time and labor of transportation to about one-fourth 
of what it was when horses were universally used as the sole 
means of travel. The women of the farm have not shared 
equally in the profits and values of these labor-saving devices. 
Churns, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, fireless cookers, 
water systems, gas and oil stoves are some of the things which 
are most common. Many of the woman’s machines, however, 
are mere improvements in ways of doing things rather than 
the substitution of non-human power for human _ power. 


68 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


There is no just reason why every tool which lends itself to 
wind, water, or machine power should not be attached to these 
sources of power to as great an extent, in the case of woman’s 
work, as has been done in the case of man’s work. 

Not only does the introduction of machinery lessen the irk- 
someness of farm labor but it increases the productiveness of 
man power many fold by saving time and multiplying the 
directive power of the human element. In 1830, it took three 
hours and three minutes of human labor to produce a bushel 
of wheat in the United States. In 1894, it required but ten 
minutes. Improvements have been made since that time and 
the human labor is today considerably less arduous than it 
was in 1830 when cradle and flail were the chief tools. In 
1855, it required four hours and thirty-four minutes of human 
labor to produce a bushel of corn. In 1894, it required forty- 
one minutes. It took thirty-five and one half hours to pro- 
duce, harvest, and bale a ton of hay in 1860. In 1894, it took 
but eleven and one-half hours. In 1841, it took thirteen and 
four-tenths minutes to produce a pound of seed cotton. In 
1895, it took but four and seven-tenths minutes.* 

The immense amount of time and energy saved over long 
periods of time by the introduction of farm machinery is 
almost impossible to calculate. Contrast the man with a hoe 
or even an old-fashioned walking plow with the following 
deseription : 


With a gang plow and five horses a man can plow from five to 
seven acres per day, completely turning over the soil, whatever its 
nature, and thoroughly pulverizing it. Plows are now being in- 
troduced, with ten to twenty fourteen-inch plows in a gang, which 
are propelled by a steam-traction engine and with which two men 
can plow from forty to sixty acres per day. A 110-horsepower 
machine plows, sows, and harrows at the same time a strip thirty 
feet wide, at the rate of three or four miles an hour, turning over 
the soil at the rate of eighty to one hundred acres a day, or under 
favorable conditions ten to twelve acres an hour. It thus performs 
work which ordinarily requires forty to fifty teams and men... . 


*United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Statistics Bulletin 
94, pp. 59-69. 


FARM LABOR 69 


There is a harrowing machine that reaches 100 feet in width, 
capable of harrowing 300 acres a day or 380 acres an hour.t 


The amount of time saved in the production of the 1922 
wheat crop alone, by modern methods over those used in 1830, 
was 2,713,179,166 hours or the time of 109,393 men working 
ten hours a day for 300 days. As a matter of fact, of course, 
no such a crop as that of 1922 was possible under the hand 
methods of production of 1830. This most striking illustra- 
tion of the labor saved by the use of machinery in the produc- 
tion of one of our big crops is presented because we are so 
liable to overlook the biggest solution to the labor supply 
problem, due to the fact that it is an evolutionary rather than 
a revolutionary product or solution. Nor has the introduction 
of labor-saving devices on the farm by any means reached the 
fulness of its development. In 1910, we purchased eight 
times as much farm machinery in the United States as we did 
in 1880. The ratio between man, horse, and machine power 
is traveling consistently in the direction of a shift from man 
to beast, from beast to machine. This, in addition to reduc- 
ing the time and irksomeness of human labor on the farm, is 
lessening the cost of production to the benefit of all who de- 
pend on farm products. 

Social Effect of Labor-saving Devices on the Farm.—The 
introduction of machinery has not only improved production 
and made farming more profitable but it has made farming 
more desirable and has revolutionized farm life. The follow- 
ing stand out as some of the more obvious social effects of the 
introduction and increased use of farm machinery: 

1. The use of farm machinery makes possible a shorter day 
in the field and fewer chores. The rapidity with which field 
work can now be done reduces the actual number of man 
hours in the field. The fewer number of work animals lessens 
the amount of chores. 

2. The machine processes free the farmer from the deaden- 
ing gross labors to which he was at one time subjected. He 
is no longer merely a beast of burden but a machinist. 


1ZintHEC, C. J., “Machinery in Relation to Farming,” in Cyclopedia of 
American Agriculture, Vol. I, p. 209. 


70 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


3. The introduction of machines, especially those which de- 
mand groups or gangs of men for operation, such as threshing 
and harvesting machines, tends to standardize farm processes 
and farm work hours. 

4. In addition to the few machines and devices which have 
entered the house, the fewer men now demanded in the farm 
process, and the shorter hours in the field tend to lighten the 
farm woman’s work and make it more possible of organization. 

5. The introduction of machines into the farming enterprise 
has added zest and interest to farming. The farm boy no 
longer looks forward to a career as a “‘hoe-farmer.” The set- 
ting up and operation of a piece of farm machinery challenges 
his mental agility and prowess. He will work with a piece of 
machinery on the basis of a creative interest which was not 
present under the old hand farming. 

6. The fact that he is a machine operator gives the farmer 
a standing of dignity which he never could have attained as a 
“hoe-farmer.”’ Manual labor has always meant menial labor 
in our general social attitudes. Machine operation is of a 
different type. 

7. The reduction of farm processes to machine processes 
has, in many cases, made farm work cleaner by removing the 
necessity of coming in direct contact with soil elements. 

8. Finally, we should not overlook the fact that the intro- 
duction of machines has considerably increased the possibility 
of farm accidents, for a majority of farm accidents result from 
work with shredders, cutters, and other machines. 

The problem of supplying our farms with sufficient and 
efficient laborers and the problem of lessening the irksomeness 
of farm labor, which we have discussed in this chapter, are 
more closely related than might at first appear. Together 
with them, is also tied the problem of the remuneration for 
work upon the farm. 

The proportion of our man power needed upon the farm is 
relatively decreasing. The requirements for efficiency and 
knowledge make the character of labor demanded by the farm 
enterprise far different today from what it was a half century 
ago. It is not only difficult to get hired men and hired girls 


FARM LABOR 71 


but they do not meet the requirements for successful farming 
when they can be had. The problem of farm labor, therefore, 
is similar to all other rural problems. Its solution is to be 
sought and possibly found in the general solution of all rural 
problems. This solution must lie in the direction of a farm- 
ing enterprise which pays its entrepreneurs a better return 
for efforts and a system of farming and mode of farm life 
which rather than forbidding is inviting to future generations 
to live upon and love the farm. 


THE GENERAL CONDITIONS OF FARM LABOR IN THE LIGHT OF 
DESIRABLE LABOR STANDARDS 


Labor Standards——The conditions under which labor is 
carried on and the end toward which laborers strive are fairly 
well established. To say that no set of criteria or standards 
has been worked out for the farm is to dodge the issue. The 
existence of a well-recognized and quite universally practiced 
set of standards in other occupations is attracting laborers 
away from agriculture into these occupations. A great many 
labor standards have been accepted and adopted in the mills, 
factories, and other city occupations because powerfully organ- 
ized labor groups have forced the issue to settlement. City 
industries, operating under the observation of scientific stu- 
dents and under the reign of law and rule of inspection, have 
been compelled to introduce many standards which now make 
up the conditions under which men and women labor. 
Furthermore, sufficient study has been made of the human 
organism, as it is subjected to certain conditions of motion, 
speed, and strain, to know not only the fatigue which results 
but the habitual reactions and even the feelings of persons 
subjected to these different conditions and processes. It may 
be a far cry to expect the agricultural situation to lend itself 
to these standards in the near future. It is not at all im- 
possible to check or measure labor conditions as they exist 
on the farm. This we shall attempt to do. 

Agriculture Is a Seasonal Occupation to a Marked Degree.— 
An occupation which is seasonal to any great degree is scarcely 


72 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


an occupation at all for those laborers who fill the seasonal 
demands, for an occupation consists of the technique of steady 
employment at one type of task. In those districts where a 
dairy herd can be kept in addition to the general farming, 
where pure bred livestock and their care furnish winter labor, 
or even where mixed livestock and general farming prevail, 
demands for labor are fairly constant. In certain sections 
such as the great small-grain sections of the West and North- 
west, the sugar beet sections of the West, and the cotton, rice, 
and tobacco sections of the South, there are seasons in which 
even the farm operator has practically nothing to do. The 
seasonal demands vary from the best-organized farms in the 
most favorable locations which utilize their labor supply prac- 
tically 100 per cent of the year, to the poorly organized farms 
in the less favorable sections, which furnish scarcely an hour’s 
labor a day during the winter months. Any section which 
does not demand at least 15 per cent additional labor supply 
during the rush season is exceptionally fortunate. ‘To supply 
even this amount of seasonal work demands a great many tran- 
sient laborers. To be forced to be transient is to be forced into 
a labor situation which is unsatisfactory to the worker. 

The Length of the Day for the Farm Laborer 1s Irregular.— 
The consequence of this is that the agricultural laborer has 
no set habits of life. During the rush season he labors from 
twelve to sixteen hours a day and during the bad days of 
winter he may work but a few hours each day. Even during 
the few months of the heavy season his hours vary greatly, due 
to weather conditions, and crop conflicts. The city man gen- 
erally labors eight hours each day. The length of his day is 
regular from month to month and is never interfered with 
by climatic conditions. He organizes his whole social and 
personal life on a known, stable basis. 

Farm Labor Demands Versatility. It Is not Easily Learned. 
—The old assumption that any one could make an efficient 
farm laborer is false in the extreme. The idea is still preva- 
lent, simply because farmers do have to accept whoever can be 
had to fill seasonal demands. It is more difficult to standardize 
the farm task than to standardize either its seasons or its 


FARM LABOR 73 


hours. The slack seasons can in a measure be supplied with 
other tasks. The hours of the day can be made standard at 
a sacrifice. But the farm must be large and well-organized to 
afford anything like specialized and standardized tasks for the 
farm laborer. Consequently, it takes him hours, days, and 
even years to know how to do all things well which must be 
done on the farm. Farming demands a longer apprenticeship 
than any manual occupation in existence. It demands this 
apprenticeship in addition to the best scientific agricultural 
education which can be had. Needless to say, no transient 
laborer can meet the requirements. Furthermore, if he were 
asked to do so efficiently, he would prefer to move to the city 
where the routine machine process demands less skill and less 
versatility to master it. 

Farm Labor Is Much of it Heavy Labor—The introduc- 
tion of farm machinery has done much to lighten the tasks of 
the farm. Handling of crops at harvest time, handling of 
heavy sacks and baskets in feeding, the lifting of dirt and 
manure, and the strain to which one is often suddenly sub- 
jected when handling livestock, all constitute hard manual 
tasks. These heavy tasks and strains are not standardized 
and often are not subject to systematization. Some other 
manual occupations, such as teaming, quarrying, mining, and 
work in factories that deal with steel and other heavy ma- 
terials demand a greater constant expenditure of energy than 
does agriculture. The persons operating in these occupations, 
however, constitute a small per cent of all who are manually 
employed in non-agricultural pursuits. The great majority 
of factory workers are machine tenders whose work is not only 
reduced to routine but is comparatively light. 

Agriculture Is More or Less a Solitary Occupation —This 
is even more true than was indicated when we discussed the 
isolation of the rural dweller. The farm laborer is not even 
in contact much of the time with the other persons who live on 
the same farm where he works. The average of male laborers 
per farm in the United States is but two. Even these two do 
not work together continuously as is the case of city employed 


74 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


men. The farm laborer is on an isolated farm and he works 
a great majority of his hours in solitude. 

The Farm Laborer Retains a Large Measure of Individual 
Initiative and Personal Responsibility—The farm laborer, 
whether he be operator or hired man, is inevitably, to a large 
degree, his own master in his day-by-day work. The very fact 
that he works in isolation and solitude forces him to make his 
own judgments concerning the things which arise during the 
day’s work. This is not so true in the gang work of the farm, 
but those who work in gangs make up a marked minority of 
farm laborers. Even this minority is seldom subjected to the 
impersonal mechanical routine of the machine process. The 
very fact that one is working with living things—plants and 
animals—obviates the possibility of reducing the farm labor- 
er’s task to the dead monotony of the factory. Working with 
these things, he not only must make continuous adjustments 
but he escapes the deadening influences of wholly impersonal 
occupations. 

Farming Is not a Dangerous and Hazardous Occupation.— 
Wages and hours are by no means the only standard for which 
laborers and reformers have fought in their attempt to im- 
prove conditions for manual laborers. The degree to which the 
occupation is dangerous, hazardous, or unhealthful is as im- 
portant as either of the other two. Farming is not a haz- 
ardous occupation when compared with the other major 
manual occupations. Statistics of the Prudential Insurance 
Company of America, on compensation for industrial acci- 
dents, during the year 1916, show a rate of $3 per thousand for 
all employed in mining and quarrying; $.93 for all employed in 
transportation and teaming; $.56 for all employed in manu- 
facturing and construction, and $.35 for all employed in agri- 
cultural pursuits. The same company presents statistics for 
the State of Massachusetts, including the years 1914 to 1917, 
which show that farm labor stands nineteenth in a list of 
occupations showing losses incurred per $1,000 of earned 
payrolls. The loss was less than one-tenth that of quarrying 
and concrete work and about one-fifth of that of masonry and 
carpentry. Similar statistics for the state of New York for 


FARM LABOR 75 


the year 1914-1915 place farm labor thirty-second in a list of 
thirty-four. The only two industries ranking lower in in- 
curred loss per $1,000 of earned payrolls were cotton spin- 
ning, and printing. Poisonous gases and dusts, bad ventila- 
tion and lighting, bad posture, and the machine speeding-up 
process are all absent from the occupation of the field hand. 
In measuring the occupation of farming by standards which 
maintain in city pursuits, these things are not to be over- 
looked. 

Labor Organizations Have no Influence on the Farm Labor 
Situation—There are arguments against some things that 
labor organizations do but it is not to be denied that their 
continual and ardent fight for better wages, shorter hours, 
and more healthful working conditions has been one of the 
chief forces in establishing the standards which now maintain 
in most of the great industries of the city. The isolation of 
the farm hand and his personal relationship with his employer 
have been factors which have made impossible and probably 
unnecessary the labor union movement among farm laborers. 
The city laborer would consider this a distinct weakness in the 
farm situation. 

The Farm Labor Situation Is not Subject to Industrial Up- 
heavals.—lIf the farm laborer does lose by not having a power- 
fully organized labor group back of him to force better stand- 
ards, as compensation for this loss he escapes from the 
damage of all lock-outs and sympathetic strikes. He drives 
his own deal, settles his own troubles, and practically never 
faces a long period of unemployment because of a shut-down 
or labor upheaval. 

The Farm Hired Man Has no Opportumty to Develop a 
Neighborhood or Community Life of His Own.—lIf it be true 
that boys and girls and even older persons leave the farm be- 
cause of the social opportunities of the city, how much more 
is it true that the isolated farm hand considers the position 
of a farm laborer one not to be desired. His isolation makes 
it impossible for him to live in a neighborhood made up of 
persons of his own status and interest. In the city there are 


* Charts furnished by Prudential Life Insurance Company of New York, 


76 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


laboring men’s residential sections, laboring men’s institutions, 
and laboring men’s neighborhood organizations. In the coun- 
try he has none of these things. He is thus not only solitary 
while at his work, but must live an exceedingly barren life 
even at leisure moments. These conditions constitute one 
more weak point in the farm labor situation. It is this rather 
long list of unsatisfactory conditions which causes the farms 
to suffer, when thrust in competition with city employment. 


THE SOCIOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCE OF THE FARM LABOR SITUATION 


General Considerations.—It is quite inconceivable that the 
farm labor situation should suffer as much as it does, in com- 
parison to desirable labor standards, without dire sociological 
consequences. These consequences are detrimental to the 
laborers and the communities and the homes in which they 
reside. This is particularly true where there is a great num- 
ber of these laborers who are transient and in those commun- 
ities which use a regular hired man or cropper?’ system of 
farming. The hired men of a section, which is made up of 
big farms managed by an overseer but tilled by a hired man- 
cropper system, were described to the writer once as “a cross 
between slaves and anarchists.” Such a characterization, 
while undoubtedly extreme, nevertheless indicates the un- 
satisfactory position of the laborer himself and the undesira- 
bility of having such an element in the community. The fol- 
lowing are probably the outstanding conditions which inhere 
in a farming situation which demands, in so far as possible, 
the elimination of others than members of operator families 
to carry on the farm enterprise. 

The Hired Man Is all too Often of Low Moral Character. 
—He inevitably comes in contact with the children of the 
home. Many times he becomes the boon companion of adoles- 
cent farm boys. It is a fact, scarcely to be disputed, that 


*To those who are not familiar with the term “cropper” it should be 
explained that a cropper is a person who labors on a farm and receives his 
remuneration in terms of the crops he grows. Usually the landlord furnishes 
all work capital, work stock, and machinery, and the house in which the crop- 
per lives. He is a hired man paid in “kind” rather than in “cash.” 


FARM LABOR 7 


farm youths would be better off without these associations, 
and many of the habits which result directly from them. If 
the hired man is a single, white man he generally must live 
in the home of the family. His presence not only disrupts 
the unity of the family life but introduces into the family 
circle an individual who many times tends to lower the whole 
tenor of the home life. If the labor situation must be met by 
great gangs at particular seasons the hired men may live apart 
from the homes. Their influence in such cases is different only 
in the fact that it is transferred from the home to the com- 
munity at large. 

Any Great Demand for Mobile or Transient Laborers Is 
Degrading to Both Laborer and Community.—It is better for 
any community or neighborhood to be made up of a stable 
population. A community is more or less an institution. If 
its solidarity or harmony is disrupted periodically by the en- 
trance and withdrawal of a great number of foreign persons, 
the settled habits and even the spirit of the community suffer 
as a consequence. The laborer who supplies the need is sub- 
jected to a condition which makes it quite impossible for him 
to develop efficiency, judgment, and character. He is more 
or less a gypsy in the labor world. He fills the demands of 
the wheat section in the summer and fall, the demands of the 
lumber camps and shipyards during the fall and winter, and 
many times the municipal lodging houses and jails at some 
period during the year. He, too, suffers because of the de- 
mand that he move on after the rush season is over. 

If the Hired Man Has a Family, His Children and Wife 
Generally Pay the Penalty of His Social and Financial Status. 
—If opportunity presents, they too work for hire. His chil- 
dren’s education suffers because of lack of money and because 
their school year is often broken by their being compelled to 
move during the school session. If he and his family are 
furnished a house on the farm, it is inevitably a house much 
beneath the standard of those in which most others of the 
community live. If there are any great numbers of such 
hired-men families in the community the educational, re- 
ligious, home, and community life all suffer, as we shall later 


78 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


see, because of the low standard of living which such families 
are compelled to maintain. 

Farm Hired Men Are Seldom an Integral Part of the In- 
stitutional Life of the Community.—This statement is becom- 
ing more and more true as we get further away from the day 
when the hired men were boys from other farm families in the 
community. Today if the “hired man” is unmarried, he is 
likely to spend his off hours alone, asleep, or in some nearby 
village. If he is married, studies of his social status and social 
habits show that he participates very little in the church, 
lodge, and other social life of the community. 

Any Tendency to Develop a Permanent Body of Hired Men 
on the Farm Indicates the Development of a Lower Class 
Than Has Ever Represented American Agriculture.—It 1s 
difficult to look with complacency upon the fact that we have, 
decade after decade, a greater number of hired men and crop- 
pers on our farms. ‘Those sections which have developed a 
thoroughgoing system of hired-men farming constitute the 
rural slums of the nation. If these men were successfully, 
even though slowly, climbing the agricultural ladder toward 
ownership, our concern would not be so great. Quite the con- 
trary is the case in some sections. Men who own the land 
may be compelled to allow their laborers a part of the crop 
which they till, in order to retain them throughout the year. 
This is generally the sole reason for paying them in crops 
rather than in cash. These croppers are in no sense tenants, 
as they are so often called. They have absolutely nothing to 
say about the planning or organizing of the farm enterprise. 
The landlord furnishes the managerial ability and often works 
these men with no regard whatsoever to the fact that they are 
croppers. The farm owner is to be excused for doing this sort 
of thing because he alone has the knowledge of correct farming 
and the future of the farm at heart. It is not an issue of 
personal blame. It is a system of farming, however, which 
does not bid fair to improve social conditions in those rural 
communities where it is prevalent. Its serious significance 
is often overlooked because we still think of the farm hired 
man in terms of the individual whose family may be farm 


FARM LABOR 79 


operators in the community, who lives in our farm homes as a 
member of some family circle, and who is not destined long to 
remain a hired man, because he will soon climb the agricultural 
ladder toward ownership. A very small percentage of them 
are any longer this type of individual and a very small per 
cent will probably ever be anything other than hired men. If 
we must have anything like a large hired-man class to main- 
tain American agriculture, if the farm owner finds it necessary 
to assume all initiative in the conduct of the farm enterprise, 
and if the members who fail to move on up the agricultural 
ladder continue to increase, it will be folly to close our eyes 
to the fact that we are developing a class of tillers of the soil 
who must continue to live lives most unsatisfactory to them- 
selves and most damaging to the future of rural civilization in 
America. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Gatpin, C. J., Rural Life, Chap I, The Century Company, New York, 1918. 

Taytor, H. C. and Buacx, J. D., “Farm Labor in Wisconsin,” Bulletin 316, 
Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, Madison, Wisconsin. 

Zintuec, C. J., “Machinery in Relation to Farming,” Cyclopedia of American 
Agriculture, Vol I, pp. 208-9. 

Houtmes, G. K., “Progress of Agriculture in the United States, Year Book of 
United States Department of Agriculture, 1899, pp. 314-320, United States 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., 1900. 


CHAPTER V 
LAND AND SOCIETY 
THE RELATION OF LAND TO CIVILIZATION 


Why All Nations Have Land Problems.—The natural re- 
sources of the world are the raw materials out of which men 
have built civilization. Where there are no natural resources, 
human communities have not developed. As time has gone 
on inventions and scientific discoveries have made available 
for human uses many elements in nature not previously 
known as natural resources. As the complexity and magni- 
tude of human society have developed, one set of natural re- 
sources has taken the stage for the first time and for a long 
or a short time has played the star role in the drama of 
society. Through all this time, land has played a regular part. 
At one stage of society’s evolution the land furnished the 
only products which men used and furnished them in the 
direct forms in which they were consumed—roots, berries and 
the like. Later the land furnished the basis for cultivated 
plants and food for domesticated animals. Next it yielded 
minerals, coal, iron, and other materials for making tools, 
implements, and for building factories and railroads. Now 
it furnishes all the raw products of the world, except those 
which come directly from the atmosphere or the sea. All the 
complex industrial processes of society depend upon land: the 
food, clothing, and shelter supplies of all peoples come from 
it; and it is the ground upon which the people themselves live 
and move. Because of its abiding significance to life, land 
has furnished the bases for some of the greatest conflicts be- 
tween the nations of the world and between classes of people 
within the nations of the world. 

Without minimizing the great roles which other occupa- 
tions and professions play in modern life, it is safe to say 

80 


LAND AND SOCIETY 81 


that agriculture is the most fundamental occupation of all 
civilization. Land is the basis of all agriculture. Von Moltke 
said, “The German Empire will collapse without the firing of 
a shot when German agriculture fails.” The same may be said 
of the United States, and, indeed, of any nation. Further- 
more, agriculture will fail when the land fails. While it may 
seem that a discussion of land and land problems belongs to the 
domain of some other science than sociology, it is certainly 
true that no discussion of social structure or social problems 
is complete without a discussion of land. This is particularly 
true of rural sociology. 

Land is of particular significance to agriculture because it 
is the one natural resource with which this occupation is con- 
cerned. Agriculture is different from all other occupations 
because of the great amount of land space it needs. It cannot 
build skyscrapers or dig deep basements, as other industries 
do. It must farm the surface of the earth. Furthermore, it 
cannot move the raw materials of agriculture to advantageous 
places. It must go where the land is and very largely build 
upon what the land offers. Gradations of fertility have been 
laid down in the crust of the earth through countless geo- 
logical ages. Humidity, sunshine, and seasons are dictated 
by the eternal cycles of the earth and the relatively fixed 
cosmic forces. What the farmer accomplishes, he must ac- 
complish largely on these fixed bases, and within these fixed 
limits. And what the farmer does with and out of these 
possibilities is of tremendous significance to the nation and 
to civilization. 

The economist, Malthus, a century ago, became tre- 
mendously concerned over what he conceived to be the in- 
capacity of land continuously to furnish the raw materials 
for human existence and well being. Up to the present time, 
discoveries of new lands and the inventive genius of man, 
by discovering new methods of converting nature’s gifts into 
usable consumption goods, have outstripped the growth of 
population and thereby forestalled the calamity which Mal- 
thus predicted. These same processes, plus the control of 
human migrations and especially the control of the human 


82 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


birth rate, bid fair to make the land suffice for all future 
time. The social problems involved in the land situation are 
not, therefore, the problems of continuous human existence. 
They are the problems involved in the utilization, organization, 
settlement, and control of lands. Upon the bases of the issues 
involved in these problems depends, more than any other one 
thing, the future organization of our national social structure. 

Land and Community Social Structure-—In the past, and 
to a considerable extent in the present, whole national social 
structures have been built upon the basis of their land systems, 
particularly upon the basis of their ownership and control of 
lands. European nations, since the World War, have attacked 
the problem of reconstructing their national social organiza- 
tions upon the basis of the redistribution of their control of 
lands. Mexico has for a generation been trying to establish 
a, stable national existence by working out a system of land 
control which will satisfy her people and develop an agri- 
cultural middle class.t. The Hebrews, the Greeks, and the 
Romans all found it necessary to have laws and customs con- 
trolling the ownership and use of land. The present chaos of 
Russia finds its derivation in a land system which created the 
Russian nobleman aristocracy. The Italian Latafundia, the 
Germany Junker, the English Land Baron or Lord, the prob- 
lems connected with the great South American Hacienda are 
all national problems that grew out of tendencies on the part 
of certain classes to monopolize the ownership and control of 
agricultural lands. One might, with a considerable degree of 
success, attempt to write the history of civilization on the 
basis of the control and utilization of lands. 

American civilization has by no means escaped the tend- 
ency of land, its control, and uses, to dictate, to a great extent, 
our national social structure and life. A very definite and 
natural attempt was made by the European nations, whose 
people settled the American colonies, to perpetuate the feudal 
system of land control in this country. It broke down be- 
cause there were great areas of available fertile land, because 


*McBrowz, G. Me., The Land Systems of Mexico, American Geological 
Society, Research Series No. 12, New York, 1918. 


LAND AND SOCIETY 83 


the types of people who braved the dangers of populating a 
new continent were ill-disposed to be subjected to such con- 
trol, and because the distance from the mother countries and 
their central governments made it impossible for them to col- 
lect “quit rents” and compete with the growth of community 
government in organizing and administering the affairs of the 
colonists. 

Conscious attempts at dictating the use and control of lands, 
however, do not constitute the index to the peculiar influence 
of land in our American social structure. If the sparsely 
settled areas of Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, or Arizona 
are compared with the closely settled agricultural areas of 
New England or even with the farming communities of the 
Middle West, the unconscious influence of types of land on 
rural social structure will be seen. The physical type of the 
land has largely dictated the limits of its uses, and its uses 
have dictated the amount of population that inhabits a given 
land area. The density of the population, in turn, dictates, to 
a very considerable degree, the type of community life. The 
industrialization of a nation depends upon the presence or 
absence of its natural resources and the degree of its indus- 
trialization depends upon the growth of urban centers. 
Urban centers, in turn, introduce economic and social elements 
into the social complex which modify the pure physical in- 
fluences of land uses. Every agricultural community in 
America is influenced by the physical base of land, on the one 
hand, and its market contacts on the other. 

The farm products which a farming community produces— 
whether wheat, cotton, dairy products, fruit, or vegetables— 
enter into its unconsciously built community structure. The 
type of land, its utilization, and control are always a part of 
the settlement and life of its people. 

The size of the farms in a rural community constitutes 
largely the basis of the density of its population and thus, to 
a considerable degree, prejudices its possibilities to construct 
one or another type of community life. In a dry-farming or 
range area, population is so scarce as to make it almost im- 
possible to establish schools and churches. In the agricultural 


84 RURAL SOCIOLOGY. 


areas that are adjacent to great urban centers, the farms are 
small enough and the populations dense enough to make it 
possible for the people who live in these areas to approach 
the urban type of social life. In the dry-farming areas of 
Colorado the average size of farms is 400 acres. In New 
Mexico it is 800 acres. In the Connecticut River Valley the 
size of farms is only twenty acres and the population exceeds 
200 persons to the square mile. Of course, the size of the 
farm does not always indicate the density of population, for 
the size of the farm as reported in the United States Census is 
only a matter of the unit of farm incorporation. On one farm 
there may be a number of hired men and their families. On 
the whole, however, the size of the farm varies inversely with 
the density of the rural population. 

The size of farms in the different geographic sections of 
the nation and their tendencies to increase or decrease are 
given in the following table: 


TaBLE 2.—AVERAGE ACREAGE IN FARMS IN THE UNITED STATES PER GEOGRAPHIC 


AREA 

Division 1920 1910 1890 1870 1850 
Linited Ptateseone cece ae ee 148.2 | 188.0 | 187.0 153 203 
New Eingland ih) ates eae 108.5 | 104.4 
Middia AtIAntCMAeun Mud caveat 95.4 3 oo | Oe 
Mast North Centralia) os. ea cre ee 108.5 | 105.0 
West) North’ Gentral/s/)2 205.0000" 234.3 | 209.6 a ae eH 
SOU GIA tLADLIC le ha woe edi eso Lae tes, SA 4 hoses 134 241 376 
eaat MOUbh WON tral tech cc cu head nom 75.0 feue 
WV GAG MOUL OCT Ade: nie ce Ont 14 7903 Tt 291 
IVUN ALL Mpa na wh Abeer, eee arer, 480.7 | 324.5 
ect tate eee nt tei ooh sielviet heen ter 239.8 | 270.3/ 


| J24 336 695 


From this table we see fairly well the amount of population 
which resides in the farming communities of the various sec- 
tions of the nation. The facts portrayed in the table largely 
result from the physical nature and location of the land out 
of which these farms are formed. They show the influence of 
the type of land and its resources; show the influence of urban 
centers; indicate the tendencies in the reorganization of farm 


LAND AND SOCIETY 85 


units in the different areas; and indicate what processes are 
working to change the social structure of the rural communi- 
ties located in these various sections. Throughout the whole 
South, for instance, there has been going on the process of 
breaking up the old plantations into smaller units. Dozens 
of ranches in Texas and New Mexico, which were at one time 
large-unit farms, have come under cultivation and have been 
reduced to smaller units. Furthermore, the South, particu- 
larly the Southeast, in recent years, has recognized its favor- 
able position for vegetable and fruit growing and so has de- 
veloped, in certain sections, hundreds of small holdings which 
operate under intensive types of agriculture. In the Mountain 
States, on the other hand, except in irrigated sections, the 
tendency has been to expand production by means of includ- 
ing greater and greater extent of acreage. Because small grain 
crops are most suited to these regions, farming, in order to be 
profitable and to use machinery to advantage, must be ex- 
tensive. Furthermore, there have been added a number of 
newly incorporated farms in the dry-farming sections. These 
farms, in nearly all cases, are larger than the previous average 
and so automatically increase the average size of farm units. 
New England and the Middle States stand between these two 
processes of extension and restriction of farm size. New 
England farms were already small in 1850. Since that time, 
there have been forces operating both to increase and to de- 
crease the size. The abandonment of farms tends to increase 
the size, because the abandonment has most often been of the 
extensive farms. On the other hand, the presence of great 
and growing cities offers a good market for products of inten- 
sive farming, and this has operated to decrease slowly the 
average size of the New England farms. In the great Central 
States the decrease has been steady though these two forces 
are at work. The type of farming is still, and probably will 
for a long time to come continue to be, extensive. The tend- 
ency to better and more cultivation, and the great amount 
of capital it takes to own a farm in these states have 
all tended to reduce the acreage per farm. The force operat- 
ing in the other direction, peculiarly enough, is also the im- 


86 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


mense amount of capital one must have to own a farm. This 
fact, plus the introduction of power-field machinery, has a 
tendency to force the land into larger consolidated holdings. 

As we look to the future and attempt to be guided in our 
conclusion by the history of the past and an appreciation of 
some well-known facts of the present, we seem justified in the 
belief that the size of our farms will continue to grow smaller 
though, as in the past, they may fluctuate from decade to 
decade. This is true: (1) because the increase in our urban 
and national population will force us to more and more inten- 
sive farming; (2) because the increase in farm population 
will have a tendency to split up large holdings; (3) because it 
is getting more and more difficult to obtain farm help, and 
therefore an extension of farm acreage per farm operator will 
have to depend altogether upon the increased use of farm 
machinery; (4) and, finally, farm management and rural social 
gurveys show quite conclusively that the family-sized farm 
is our best producing unit, particularly when measured in 
terms of the farm family standard of living. None of these 
factors are conclusive, but, coupled with the general tendency 
which has been going on throughout the country for the last 
seventy years, and with the fact that the same process has 
been the rule in other countries, and that there is a relative 
decrease in small-grain farming and an increase in corn and 
livestock, dairy, fruit, and vegetable farming, warrant the 
conclusion that our holdings will grow smaller in the future. 
This will make a denser population in rural communities and 
thus enliven all social processes and create more complex 
community structures with their resulting community social 
problems. 

The Peculiar Influence of Land in the United States—From 
the beginning of our national life up almost to the immediate 
present, we have had land opportunities never before known 
in modern civilization. This fact has created in the United 
States a type of civilization that has not existed before in the 
world’s history and will probably not be duplicated again un- 
less in South America and Canada. Lands were practically 
free, some of them immensely fertile, and sufficiently plenti- 


LAND AND SOCIETY 87 


ful that individual ownership was almost universally possible. 
The results were that individual proprietorship in lands be- 
came widespread for the first time in history; a system of in- 
dividual and isolated farm residence was established for the 
first time in the history of the world; and the appreciation of 
the values of land in comparison to labor and industrial capital 
was almost completely destroyed. The inherent worth of the 
individual was transferred to his capacity to control land. 
Some of the colonies made land ownership the test of suf- 
frage,.and, for a considerable period after this practice broke 
down, continued to make it a requisite to eligibility for office 
holding. The reaction to the attempt to establish the feudal 
system of land tenure swung so far toward the opposite pole 
that the attitudes of some of our American forefathers would 
today be called bolshevistic. The emphasis on liberty came 
to transcend far that placed on either equality or fraternity. 
America’s contribution to the world by way of a new concept 
of democracy and her attitude in world affairs at the present 
time are in no small way results of 200 years of land oppor- 
tunities. 

The influences of free, virgin lands, awaiting and inviting 
settlement, went beyond its effect on our individual, social, 
and political attitudes. It wove itself into our people’s eco- 
nomic ideas, attitudes, and convictions which they still re- 
tain. As population increased and the approach to the ex- 
haustion of our free lands became apparent, economic specu- 
lation in lands became rife. Lands, homesteaded in Western 
Iowa in the sixties and early seventies, were selling for $25 
an acre within a decade and for as high as $100 an acre at the 
beginning of the present century. During the ten years from 
1850 to 1860, the population of the eight mid-western states 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 
Towa, and Missouri, increased over 3,350,000 or more than 167 
per cent. The increase in Iowa was 251 per cent, and that of 
Minnesota 2,730 per cent. Nearly 43,000,000 acres of land 
were taken up in the region during that decade. It was cal- 
culated by an Iowa City editor during one three-month period 


88 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


in 1854 that over 50,000 people flowed into Iowa.t Some Iowa 
and Illinois lands sold for $400 and $500 an acre during the 
recent World War. Men had completely lost their sense of 
relative values or had built such false theories of values that 
they declared that “these were not inflated values; that Lowa 
and Illinois land was selling for the first time at its real value.” 
So sure have men been of the persistent and continuous future 
rise in land values that they have bought land on speculative 
bases or on values which the economic production of these 
lands could not in the normal course of events reach for a 
half generation. This fact*has put farm lands, for the last 
forty years, further and further out of the reach of those who 
had to earn their payments upon farms out of their present 
economic productive capacity. The results have been an 
increasing number of families on the land who do not and 
cannot own it, and a sacrifice of the rural family standard of 
living, because the head of the family is trying to pay for an 
overcapitalized farm or because the landlord is collecting rents 
which will pay him decent interest rates on his capital invested 
in land that is not worth what he paid for it and thought it 
was worth. 

The movement westward into fertile land areas became a 
psychological movement, which continued long after it was 
profitable to take up unsettled lands. Upon the basis of the 
land opportunities of the last half of the nineteenth century, 
population continued to flow into these regions for the first 
fifteen years of the present century. People seeking oppor- 
tunities which had been available in Iowa and Illinois in one 
generation, in the next generation pushed beyond the exten- 
sive margin of profitable production into semi-arid or arid 
lands. Even the federal government by irrigation develop- 
ment participated in this uneconomical movement. The re- 
sults of this continued western movement were to increase 
land speculation, establish homes on lands that could not 
support them, and to leave undeveloped areas farther east 
which offered better opportunities than the marginal or sub- 


“Turner, F. J., The Rise of the New West, The American Nation, Vol. 
XIV, pp. 74-83. 


LAND AND SOCIETY 89 


marginal lands of the west could afford. All these things de- 
veloped out of the unique land situation which prevailed in 
the United States for 150 to 200 years. We are confronted 
with the economic and social adjustments which are incident 
to the reorganization of our social structure and social life on 
the basis of land resources which are within the newly pop- 
ulated areas of the nation. Just what some of these possible 
adjustments may be will be discussed in the concluding sec- 
tion of this chapter. 


THE ADVENT OF OUR LAND PROBLEMS 


The Disposal of Free Lands.—The land problems in the 
United States are not different in their fundamental nature 
from land problems of all time, though they are just begin- 
ning to present themselves as clearly defined national prob- 
lems. 

It was scarcely to be expected that various land problems 
would arise as long as the United States was in a pioneer stage 
of agriculture. When we no longer had free lands, however, 
and were compelled to face the task of building our future 
agricultural progress upon the areas already largely under 
cultivation, we came to realize the existence of our land prob- 
lems and the need of state and national land policies. Pre- 
vious to that period in our national life, farming had been 
looked upon as a purely individual enterprise. This individual 
enterprise was so rich in return and so fraught with future 
possibilities that it automatically took care of our national 
welfare. The passing of our extensive frontiers has brought 
us face to face with the necessity of conserving and utilizing 
our raw materials and national income in such a way as most 
efficiently to care for an ever-increasing population. The 
occupation of farming is no longer merely the business of a few 
isolated men, it is the business of a nation. 

The problem is not merely that a few thousand men who 
want to avail themselves of farms under the homestead acts 
cannot do it, or at least no longer find it profitable. It is that 
the whole nation is becoming conscious of the fact that the 


90 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


national per capita production of agriculture is steadily di- 
minishing and that this means a steady advance in the cost of 
living, particularly in the cost of food, clothing, and shelter, 
which depend directly upon agricultural lands. Further- 
more, so far as the average individual can see, there is to be 
no end to this process. 

The facts that we did have such a large portion of the 
population on the land, that we did have a seemingly un- 
limited supply of free lands, and that about 50 per cent of 
our lands were still unimproved, led to the ery of “back to the 
farm” just as soon as it was seen that these conditions no 
longer prevailed. This was a cry, however, for men to return 
to, or to enter, an occupation, the fundamental base of which 
no longer furnished attractive economic opportunity. 
Gradually we began to realize that agriculture, which form- 
erly had such a tremendous grip upon the American pioneer, 
was no longer a profession of great pride or prosperity. In 
no country of the world had the owners and operators of land 
stood in a position of greater prestige than they did in the 
first century of our national life. Industrial occupations had 
not been successful in diverting even wage workers from the 
farm as they had been in England from the very beginning of 
the industrial revolution. But by 1900, 35 per cent of farm 
entrepreneurs were renters and the prospects of ownership 
were becoming less each year. The land problem had been 
thought of, up to this time, only in terms of homesteads, 
estates, inheritances, and purchases, as mere individual farm 
concerns. It now came to be looked upon as a problem of 
national economy and social welfare. 

The land problem, like other economic and social problems, 
became a conscious problem only when it presented adjust- 
ments difficult to make. We were no more dependent in 
1900 than we were in 1800 upon land as the base for the pro- 
duction of our primary wealth. We had had such a vast 
public domain that we had not believed its limits could be so 
quickly reached. Andrew Jackson said, in 1832, that our 
free lands would suffice for our national expansion for 700 
years. 


LAND AND SOCIETY aU 


There has not been an era in American history more inter- 
esting and more tragic than that of the movement of our 
pioneers westward across the continent. The original Col- 
onies, at the dissolution of their colonial government, turned 
over to the federal government all lands west of the Alle- 
gheny Mountains. At the time of the census of 1790, prac- 
tically the whole rural population of the United States lay 
east of this mountain range. By 1820, the frontier had moved 
almost as far west as the Mississippi River, particularly in 
the northern states. By 1850 it included Michigan, Wiscon- 
sin, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and East Texas. By 1880, the 
middle portion of the frontier boundary had gone as far west 
as Denver, and many sections, even on the Pacific coast, had 
been settled. By 1900, we became conscious of the fact that 
its limits were fast being reached. 

If the United States government had set out consciously 
and with skilful planning to bring upon itself, as quickly as 
possible, serious land problems, it could not have done so 
more aptly and more quickly than by the disposal of its public 
domain in such a reckless, short-visioned way. Over 75 per 
cent of the total land area of the nation was at one time in 
the hands of the federal government. It has disposed of 53.3 
per cent of these lands by sales to private individuals, grants 
to railroads and other corporations, grants to various states, 
homesteads, and Indian allotments. It still retains 22.5 per 
cent of the original public domain, 10.8 per cent of which is 
in national forests, national parks, reservations, and unallotted 
Indian lands, and 11.7 per cent of which is unreserved and 
unappropriated. Of the unreserved and unappropriated lands 
35.6 per cent are classified as barren, totally unfit for either 
range or farming land. 

We have, in a little over 200 years, practically exhausted 
our free lands. Between 1800 and 1918 the federal govern- 
ment turned over to individuals, corporations, and states 
considerably over one billion acres of farm, range, and forest 
lands. At no time and in no federal act was there shown an 
appreciation of our inevitable economic land problems. Not 
until we had disposed of 348,000,000 acres, or about 18 per 


92 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


TABLE 3.—DIspPosiITION OF LAND ONCE IN THE PuBLic DoMAIN (JUNE 30, 1918)8 


Disposition of Land ayer Per Cent 
cres 

Total ares iofebheal nitense tales \, 2. ol eves & scat eter 1,903.3 100 

Territory at no time part of public domain............ 461.1 24.2 
Territory at some time part of the public domain......| 1,442.2 75.8 
ATEA KISPOSEC OL Ria timate Mele el. fo stare Weed o done Spek Gt eee 1,015.0 63:3 
SLATE STANTS seen G iste dacs blisters ys eee 177.1 9.3 
Land patented under railroad and wagon road grants... 126.9 Gan 
Homestead, timber culture, Indian allotments, etc...... 292 .4 15.9 
Otherwise disposed Olve vine watsinc sles Laenreeie Le eee 418.6 22.0 
Area remaining in United States ownership............ 427 .2 22.5 
National Forests, parks, reservations and Indian lands. . 204.4 10.8 
Unreserved and unappropriated.............2..-+ec8: 222.4 Ley 
DIALNON Aerie Poh geet a toh yes Soe eo leds oy, vctsaesae ae eee 80.3 35.6 
Weable‘rangewnd farm lands ss ve on oie salute eee eee 142.1 64.4 


cent of the public domain, did we make any move even to 
establish homes upon the land. Previous to the Homestead 
Act of 1862 the dominant idea in disposing of public lands 
was to gain revenue for the federal government. Even the 
homestead acts did not obviate speculation in land after the 
farms were once ‘“‘proved” or became the private property 
of those who “took out the claims.” The result was that mil- 
lions of acres of land, at one time virgin soil, owned by the 
government, were robbed of their fertility, sold to private in- 
dividuals, and are now being farmed by men who do not own 
them, many of them having little prospect of ever becoming 
land owners. The government not only squandered its public 
domain in less than one-seventh of the time Jackson had pre- 
dicted, but had, by its failure to develop small land-owning 
husbandmen upon the soil, developed for itself the problems 
of land reclamation and land tenancy. 

Some appreciation of what was taking place did find ex- 
pression from time to time in farmer and labor groups. Sen- 
ator Benton of Missouri introduced a “Land Graduation Bill,” 
in 1924. This bill recognized the propriety of granting free 


* Mackay, B., Employment and Natural Resources, United States Depart- 
ment of Labor, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1919. 


LAND AND SOCIETY 93 


lands to actual settlers.1 The National Reformers’ Party, 
organized in 1844, was the first concerted movement for home- 
stead legislation. The three cardinal principles of this party’s 
land reforms were: (1) land limitation, (2) inalienability of 
land, (3) reservation of land for actual settlers only. Garri- 
son, in 1847, expressed the conviction that the redemption of 
land was desirable to prevent monopoly. Various labor groups 
in their conventions from 1845 to 1856 made the land ques- 
tion a leading subject for discussion. The Free Soil Party 
accepted the disposal of lands as an issue in 1852 and the 
Republican Party discussed it in its Convention in 1856. Be- 
tween 1852 and 1862 numerous bills were introduced in Con- 
gress and finally, in 1862, President Lincoln signed the first 
Homestead Act. This Act, and all acts since, have failed to 
deal with the question in the fundamental way advocated by 
the National Reformers’ Party and have failed as yet to pre- 
vent the growth of land monopoly, the growth of an extensive 
tenant class, and the steady exhaustion of soil fertility.” 

One of the greatest defects of an uncontrolled exploitation 
of our lands has been the rapid depletion of our timber supply. 
Originally the United States had a timber supply of 5,200,- 
000,000,000 board feet. Now it has a supply of considerably 
less than one half that amount. Our original timber covered 
822,000,000 acres of virgin forest. Now we have but 1387,000,- 
000 of virgin forest. Wood consumption in the United States 
is 26,000,000,000 cubic feet per year and only 6,000,000,000 
cubic feet is being replaced annually by reforestation. We 
have 81,000,000 acres of completely devastated forest lands. 
If all our idle cut-over lands were reforested today our timber 
supply would be exhausted at the present rate of consump- 
tion before the young trees had grown to merchantable size.° 
The lumber industry has shifted from the Northeastern States 
to the Lake States and then to the Pacific States and more 
recently to the Southern States. The exploitation of each 


+ Highteenth Congress, first session, Vol I, p. 583. 

*“Disposition of Public Land of the United States,” Macnusson, L., 
Bulletin of Department of Labor, Washington Printing Office, 1919. 

* Exy and Moorenovuse, Elements of Land Economics, p. 127, The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1924. 


94 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


timber area has left behind it a trail of deforested land very 
little of which has been replaced. In many areas valuable 
timber was cut and burned to make way for other crop pro- 
duction. ‘Trees were looked upon as obstacles rather than 
crops and were thus destroyed in the quickest and easiest 
fashion possible.? 

Our Present Land Situation.—In 1920, there were 6,448,343 
farms in the United States, including 955,883,115 acres, and 
22 per cent of this land was classified as unimproved. The total 
land area of the United States is 1,903,215,360 acres. This 
means that the area incorporated in farms is only 50.2 per 
cent of the total land area. Only about 503,000,000 acres or 
52.6 per cent, of land in farms is under cultivation. That is, 
only 26.4 per cent of our total area is classified as improved 
farm land. Only about 365,000,000 acres, or 18.6 per cent, 
of the total is in harvested crops. Authorities of the United 
States Department of Agriculture estimate that it is possible 
to increase the area of improved land about 300,000,000 acres, 
or 60 per cent, by irrigation, drainage, clearing and dry-farm- 
ing methods, and that there are about 355,000,000 additional 
acres which have sufficient humidity to make crop production 
possible, but because of being too hilly or sterile this acreage 
can be used profitably only for timber culture. This means that 
we have over 650,000,000 acres of potential agricultural land, 
or an amount exceeding by 150,000,000 acres all present im- 
proved farm lands. This area, plus that already in use, sets 
the stage for our future development, organization, and settle- 
ment of agricultural communities. The present agricultural 
depression is leading most students of land economics to the 
conclusion that any encouragement of the development of 
these lands for crop production would be unwise at this time. 
But the continued encroachment of population upon them is 
going to develop them in one way or another. The question 
which constitutes the social problems in relation to them is 
what sort of communities are going to develop in these areas 


* GREELY, W. B., Timber Depletion and Its Answer, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Circular 112, Washington, D. C. 


LAND AND SOCIETY 95 


and what is going to be the effect of their development upon 
the national social life. 

In 1890, there were 140,970,547 acres, lying west of the 
west state line of Iowa, not included in farms which today are 
included in farms. This does not include the expansion in 
Texas, which it is impossible to calculate because farms were 
differently classified in that state in the two census reports. 
Between 1890 and 1920, the rural population in the states 
lying west of this line increased 11,164,008 or over 129 per 
cent. How rapidly these vacant lands have been occupied 
is seen in the following table: 


TABLE 4.—INCREASE IN POPULATION IN STATES Wuicu Stitt Hap FREE Lanp 





IN 1890 
State 1920 1890 

ETRONICS Re AU i 334, 162 88 , 243 
iM TUD TT UTE SS ob Bese Geko A ARMING fae IOAN 2 Ie GL A 3,426,861 | 1,213,398 
ST RLESPEET RIN OV (Wit, iil SUNY YA ANN DS ioe A I oR a naa ORR 939 , 629 413,249 
Ta Gta8 yy oN aia Sica Cede MAG Te ot bein eA ST 431,866 88 ,548 
POS BTU Te Rs Ra AN OL 1,769,257 | 1,428,108 
PRR MSS ie, cots fate tbe tla ey dat 548 , 887 142 ,924 
De UeE AL eee DN EME UE Wy eh hort, ay TPN oie aie 1,296,372 | 1,062,696 
SESE RSC ah LCL ae Ry CAE Se en oe 77,407 a7 Boo 
Ina TMS Kia ¢, cance SOE Danis Sala Cao tan ad NT) By 360 , 360 160 , 282 
VN VGU (P0 TI EW ofa 2S eg Rn ah gO Se PI 646 , 872 190,983 
CLLR AVET TGS. 3093 Ao Tat AD ek Mee Seas OM Anaya Wl Is Ae, RR 2,028,283 B00 00% 
ers eran wen ete eC PR e gs tac) eit is Me etal alot ark ooh 738 , 389 317,704 
RETR AO LIN ary ERO ee NOSE AEE MPT EL! 636 , 547 348 , 600 
TRO cc ke ie a AI Le Spee area A Da A pede 4*663 (2280 23255) 527 
(124 Sopa Co Re UR Age Ls a ORR OPEL CAF Oa 449 ,396 210,779 
hc CTE LUTINE” 0A) 1 35 NI AR SS URINE CODER aR Coa SNL AN gery 1,356,621 357 , 232 
VIR STRTRET IAC Le os) Sal ea a A MIU RS Pa ACL ol 194,402 62,555 

TREC ol Oe ee SAMO ah oe OP A mney OTHE ol Wap e 19,890,518 | 8,626,510 


Increase 1920 over 1890, 11,164,008. 


Per cent increase, 129. 





The population of the whole United States increased 39.0 
per cent in the period between 1900 and 1920, while cur land 
in farms increased only 13.9 per cent. The problem of get- 
ting productive lands for our increasing population is becom- 


96 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


ing more and more difficult and there is no doubt that vacant 
lands will continue to be taken up by land seekers. 

It is calculated that we have already exhausted certain 
chemical elements of the soil which were millions of years in 
forming, some of which can never be replaced.’ Verily we 
have reached a stage in our national life when it is time to 
call a halt on this type of farming. We need to bring within 
the pale of cultivation these millions of acres not yet avail- 
able because of being too dry, too wet, too stony, too acid, or 
too alkaline. We need to call a halt on the squandering of 
our public domain; to increase our per capita production, and 
to educate our farmers to conduct production in such a way 
as to stop depleting our soil, and, if possible, to improve the 
soil from year to year. 

The nation has not yet recognized certain bad social condi- 
tions as problems demanding a conservation policy. There 
are, however, systems of taxation which make it more valuable 
to hold lands out of cultivation than to farm them. There 
are many acres not under cultivation at present because their 
owners are holding them for speculation. There are some 
ancient homestead laws which are working as great a detri- 
ment to up-to-date farming and community building as any 
bad physical condition. In the near future these problems, 
too, will be attacked, for when the nation once sees them as 
fundamental to our future prosperity it will assume the task 


of finding a way to bring these uncultivated areas under 
cultivation. 


THE NEED FOR NATIONAL AND STATE LAND POLICIES 


The Objects of a National Land Policy—We have reached 
a development of national consciousness and national con- 
science when we have begun to see that the disposition of our 
national resources is vital to the general national welfare. It 
is only very recently that we have taken any steps to control 


*VaNn Hisz, “Preservation of Phosphates and Conservation of the Soil,” 
Annals, Vol 33, pp. 699 et seq. 


LAND AND SOCIETY 97 


the exploitation of the land and even then only when other 
national resources, such as oils, and minerals, are involved. 
Soil is our greatest natural resource, but nothing has yet been 
done by way of a national program to force its conservation. 
Recently the federal government has classified the public 
domain according to fitness for different uses. This was done 
only after we had disposed of a vast majority of the federal 
land and does not now apply to privately owned lands ac- 
quired prior to this act. The provisions of a wise national land 
policy would look to an increase of at least fifty million in 
our national population within the next two generations; 
would classify all lands of the nation; would provide for giving 
information and assistance in proper methods of conservation 
and reclamation; and would offer information and possibly 
assistance in establishing good community life in the areas 
yet to be settled. 

The failure of the federal government to dispose of the 
public domain on the basis of lands classified according to 
their potential uses and values has led to the turning over to 
individuals practically all the coal, iron, and other mineral 
and oil deposits of the nation. It has by a broadcast home- 
stead law, and later by a miscalculated reclamation program 
led families to settle on lands which, for the present at least, 
should not be under cultivation. Without classification this 
was bound to happen. To the land hungry, “land is land,” 
especially with the history of speculative gains made out of 
the really fertile farming land of the Middle West still in 
their minds. But there are physical, economic, and social 
limitations to land. The physical limitations are set by the 
climate, humidity, topography, and fertility of the soil. The 
economic limitations are set by these physical characteristics, 
plus the distance to or difficulties of reaching the market with 
the type and kind of product which the land can be made to 
produce. The social limitations are the healthfulness of the 
climate and the capacity of the land to support enough people 
to make community life possible.* All of these factors about 


1Exiy and Moorenouss, Elements of Land Economics, pp. 26-31 and 49-55, 
The Macmillan Company, New York, 1924. 


98 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


the land, which are yet to be settled, should be known. No 
agency is in a position to discover the information and dis- 
tribute it except the federal government. 

Practically all areas not settled demand reclamation of some 
character. The federal government has already embarked 
upon the enterprise and has thus far spent millions of dollars 
to bring lands into cultivation. Some of the reclamation work 
has not taken into consideration all the limitations which have 
just been mentioned. Undoubtedly this mistake will ulti- 
mately have to be paid for in the loss of some of the money 
spent. 

A reclamation project is always a large-scale irrigation or 
drainage project and cannot be embarked upon by other than a 
big corporation, the federal government, or a state govern- 
ment. The individual settler cannot undertake it because of 
lack of capital and because the physical facilities for both 
drainage and irrigation must cover an area large enough to in- 
clude many individual farms. The federal government can 
best undertake the work, and in doing so it should work with a 
long-time program of development in mind, which program 
would obviate many of the mistakes made in the settlement 
of our “free lands.” 

The reclamation service stated at the beginning of its pro- 
gram of development, twenty years ago, that its primary 
object was to establish homes upon the land. The homes it 
established, sometimes upon submarginal land, could scarcely 
be said to be an index to social statesmanship. It needs to 
go further and to come as near as possible to guaranteeing an 
adequate community life to those who settle upon the land. 
It should make its policy or approved blueprint for the sale, 
development, and settlement of lands so well known that no 
type of real estate promotion could lead settlers to embark 
upon farming projects which could not succeed because of 
lack of knowledge concerning the physical or economic facts. 
It should go much further and attempt to see that the types 
of communities that develop in these areas do not become 
rural slums but completed rural communities. The feasibility 


LAND AND SOCIETY a) 


of the last suggestion has been demonstrated by a number of 
nations of the world, by the state of California, and by a few 
private colonizers. 

The Object of State Policies—Many elements in a land 
policy can be better administered by the several states than 
by the federal government. The state governments are closer 
to the lands and in many ways much more immediately inter- 
ested in their development. Undeveloped areas lie idle, yield- 
ing the state no tax revenues, and often handicapping not only 
the development of good community life in the area where they 
are but often handicapping the economic and social life of 
adjoining or more remote areas. ‘The various states of the 
union which have unsettled land should cooperate with the 
national government in the prices of land classification and 
should probably go even beyond the national government in 
assisting settlers to economic success. Certainly they should 
go further in helping to establish rural communities. ‘They 
are naturally interested in emphasizing the comparative ad- 
vantages of their own land. They should, however, see that 
untruths are not circulated about the prospects of their un- 
developed areas, for such practices invariably react unfavor- 
ably upon the long-time possibilities of the development which 
they seek to promote. The lands within most of our states 
still hold great possibilities for wealth and community devel- 
opment. The state government is the right agency to promote 
both of these things. 

Example of State and National Policies—The United 
States and the various states have been slow in developing 
land policies. California, however, has taken an advanced 
step, carrying out even the project of close community settle- 
ment. 

After an extended study by a legislative commission in 
California, the Legislature, in 1917, enacted a law providing 
for direct land settlement by the state. California was the 
first and is the only state of the union thus far to attempt 
land settlement by the state itself. The plan was copied from 
Australia, where it had proved most successful, as it had 


100 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


also in some South American states and Canada. Cali- 
fornia has never contemplated that all of her vacant lands 
would be settled by state aid. Her purpose was to demon- 
strate the methods and principles essential to success in land 
settlement. Specifically, the California law was enacted, first, 
to avoid the causes of financial failure of reclamation and 
enterprise due in large measure to delay in settlement and 
use of the land, most of which must be reclaimed by irrigation; 
second, to avoid the failure of settlement through delay in 
getting settlers and delay in getting the land into use, due to 
lack of capital, and to short-term credits that swamped them 
before they could get their land under production; third, to 
avoid placing men on the land who were not likely to succeed 
because of lack of capital, experience, or adaptability to farm- 
ing. To mesure success, it was determined that, before land 
was purchased by the state for settlement, all facts affecting 
health and production should be carefully studied; that the 
amount of land should be sufficient to create a distinct com- 
munity life in each settlement undertaken; that the title to 
the land sold be retained by the state for ten years; that the 
tenure of the settler should prevent speculation and yet safe- 
guard ownership; that every settler should have capital 
enough to protect the state against loss; that the price paid for 
the land by the settler should be fixed by what it will pro- 
duce; that the land should be so prepared as to permit the 
settler to derive an income as quickly as possible; that pro- 
vision should be made by the state for meeting all overhead 
expenses through the purchases made; that settlers must be 
provided with suitable credit, and must be given advice, 
assistance, and instruction in their farming operations, includ- 
ing marketing, and in cooperation with their community oper- 
ations. 

The community at Durham, California, has been a con- 
spicuous success. The settlement at Delhi, California, started 
during the World War, has been attempting to make progress 
during the period of the agricultural depression and on land 
where the reclamation costs and market facilities were un- 


LAND AND SOCIETY 101 


favorable as compared to Durham. Both of these settlements 
have been carried out on lands which required a much greater 
capital outlay than would be necessary in many other recla- 
mation areas. The Durham settlement has not only demon- 
strated a method of reclaiming land but has been an outstand- 
ing success in assisting men to the ownership of farms and 
in establishing a rural community with a number of coopera- 
tive enterprises among the settlers, with all the standard 
social institutions ready-made for the use of the settlers and 
a twenty-two acre park and playground provided and located 
in the heart of the colony. 

California followed the example of Australia in her method 
of land development and settlement. Australia had followed 
the example of Italy and Denmark.’ In each of these coun- 
tries, and particularly in Australia, this scheme of reclamation 
and settlement has been elaborately used. 

A number of the European governments, some of the 
Provinces of Canada, and some of the states of the United 
States established plans for assisting returning soldiers into 
land ownership at the close of the World War. Franklin K. 
Lane, former Secretary of Interior of the United States, very 
seriously promoted such a plan for federal aid to the return- 
ing American soldier. Although a number of bills were pre- 
sented in congress, none of them made ample provision for 
guaranteeing either economic success or inviting community 
life. Canada, however, has settled something more than 27,000 
returned soldiers upon farms.” 

Practically all the states of the United States that lie with- 
in the irrigation area have enacted laws providing assistance in 
one way or another for the development of their lands. Utah 
took the first step in 1865. Most of the present state laws 
provide for investigation of all matters relating to the water 
supply, the soil in relation to its demand for water, the rea- 
sonable market value of the land, and the character and 
nature of the bonds to be issued by the irrigation district. In 


*Meap, E., Helping Men Own Farms, Chap. I, and VIII to XII. 


*GitteTTE, J. M., Rural Sociology, p. 213, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1922. 


102 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Oregon, the state goes so far as to certify the bonds as legal 
investments for trust funds, and also pays the interests on 
the bonds from one to five years. Alberta, Canada, guarantees 
both principal and interest of the irrigation district bonds.’ 

Between 1910 and 1920 in the Great Lake states of Min- 
nesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin nearly 3,500,000 acres were 
added to land in farms and about 2,500,000 acres added in 
crops, by clearing, draining, and settlement. Most of this 
land had been previously held by timber companies who had 
stripped it of its timber and held it as practically dead assets 
on their hands. In two of these states, Wisconsin and Min- 
nesota, State Bureaus of Immigration and Settlement now 
guide and supervise these projects and in Michigan the state 
has awakened and has promoted one of the outstanding land 
classification programs of the nation. 

National policies of reforestation and timber culture are 
prevalent in Europe. The forests in France, Germany, and 
Switzerland are the products of planned and controlled forest 
policies. In a number of these countries, farm forestry is prac- 
ticed as a part of the cropping system. The forest areas are 
so interwoven with other farming areas that the “lumber 
jack” is not a part of the process, nor are saw mills and logging 
communities mere transients in the social life. 

Other examples of state or national land policies which 
might be cited are the New Zealand graduated land tax; the 
Australian perpetual lease; the inheritance laws of England, 
Ireland, and France; and the national purchase and sale 
policies of Ireland and Denmark. It is not our purpose, how- 
ever, to attempt a detailed discussion of land economies but 
only to give a sufficiently varied set of examples of state and 
national policies to show that methods and policies are being 
devised which aim to bring the problems related to land con- 
servation, utilization, ownership, and settlement within the 
pale of public welfare. 

* Tree, R. P., Manuscript of a study of Reclamation by the United States 


Department of Agriculture, 1923-1924. United States Department of Agri- 
culture, Washington, D. C. 


LAND AND SOCIETY 103 
LAND PROBLEMS AND RURAL SOCIAL PROBLEMS 


Land Ownership.—It may seem to be a far ery from the 
technical problems of land classification, irrigation, and 
drainage to problems in rural sociology. But there is no prob- 
lem more important to the farmer than his economic success 
and the social life which he can have only if he is successful. 
He is, therefore, concerned about the possibilities and poten- 
tialities of the land which he farms. He is furthermore con- 
cerned about the possibilities of land ownership. Any steps, 
therefore, that the national or state governments can take 
which will make it possible for the farmer to become a land 
proprietor, are of immense concern to him and of no little con- 
cern to the welfare of the nation and the state. The land is 
looked upon as a savings bank by the average farmer. He is 
a more stable and self-respecting citizen if he is the owner 
of a farm than if he is a landless and shifting tenant. Ex- 
Governor Allen of Kansas declared that “In two years,” during 
the World War, “socialism, driven by the cleverest German 
propaganda, rose and broke three times against the land 
titles of France,” ? meaning that peasant ownership in France 
gave to her armies and her national population a stability and 
patriotism that would almost suffer national death rather 
than sacrifice their land proprietorship and love for homes. 

The Conflict of Land Values and the Rural Standard of 
Iiving—The actual increase in wealth created by the enter- 
prise of agriculture finds its depository in one of three places: 
in increased land values, in cities built out of agriculture, or in 
the standard of living of rural people. The era of land specu- 
lation, through which we, as a nation, have nearly passed, but 
yet to considerable extent are still in, has led to an almost 
universal inflation of land values. If the ownership of farm 
lands is in the hands of those who till the soil, there is little or 
no competition between the farm standard of living and the 
values of farm lands. If, however, the lands are owned by 


*AutLEN, H. S., Kansas Problems, pp. 16-17, Topeka, Kansas, 1920. Quoted 
from ELy and Morexovuss, Elements of Land Economics, p. 22. 


104 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


others than those who till them and live on them, there is a 
conflict between those who produce the crops and those who 
collect the rents, which is as real as the conflict between labor 
and capital for the dividends of mdustry. ‘Those who till 
the soil must measure the profitableness of agriculture in 
terms of the living it yields them, while those who own 
the land must measure it by the interest they can collect on 
their investments in land by way of rent. Therefore, even so 
technical an economic problem as land value and land capital- 
ization is a social problem of immense importance to the 
people who till the soil. It is, furthermore, a significant na- 
tional problem of economic and social justice so deeply woven 
into our complex economic and social structure that the nation 
can rise or fall on what is ultimately done about it. 

Opportunities for Building Rural Communities on Vacant 
Lands.—Rural communities in America are different from 
rural communities in any section of the world that was settled 
prior to our colonial period. The isolated farmstead of 
America was a direct result of our favorable land situation. 
Families were pulled out of close community life by the lure 
of individual farm ownership. Now we no longer have our 
favorable land situation, and we have begun to work at the 
task of community improvement and community planning in 
rural districts. It would seem that the correct and statesman- 
like thing to do would be to plan rural communities in recla- 
mation areas. This does not mean that it would be wise to 
attempt to force such development in a period when men are 
not seeking to enter the occupation of farming. It does mean 
that wherever and whenever reclamation areas are settled they 
should be settled by means of communities. 

The reason that millions of acres of cut-over land of the 
South Atlantic and Gulf Coast states are not inhabited and 
reduced to profitable farming is because private land and 
lumber companies have not attacked the problem of reclama- 
tion and settlement in this fashion. The agricultural poten- 
tialities of some of these lands are very inviting. They lie in 
an area of plentiful and well-distributed rainfall, rich soils, 


LAND AND SOCIETY 105 


long, frost-free growing seasons, and are near the great central 
market of the nation. They offer opportunities for building 
rural communities more complete and more perfectly planned 
than any natural-grown rural community of America. Thus 
far the lands available for the carrying out of such projects 
have suffered two chief fates. Lumber and land companies, 
knowing the agricultural possibilities of the areas from which 
the timber has been stripped, have sold land to individual 
settlers. The failures of such attempts to settle the lands have 
been almost universal and often tragic. The settler found 
himself incapable of financing the development of his lands, 
with no town in which to efficiently market his farm products, 
and devoid of schools, churches, or even roads and neighbors. 
Men who were anxiously seeking opportunity for farm-home 
ownership, and land companies which were attempting to pro- 
mote settlement, often perfectly honestly, were basing pros- 
pects purely upon the physical characteristics of the soil, for- 
getting or not knowing that the economic and social aspects of 
farming are just as essential to success as are the physical. 

The other thing that is happening in these cut-over regions 
is that the land is being abandoned by the companies who 
bought it for the lumber that was on it, and now, having cut 
all the merchantable timber, they cannot afford even to retain 
ownership because of the taxes which they are compelled to 
pay upon unprofitable lands. Where they do retain owner- 
ship, the land is allowed to grow up in briers and scrub tree 
growth, much of which will never yield a lumber supply, and 
all of which will make ultimate reclamation very difficult and 
expensive. 

If the state or federal governments would adopt a reclama- 
tion program of reforestation or group settlement in all these 
areas, they would obviate both of the tragedies which we 
have just described. These cut-over and wet lands cannot be 
developed in any other way. The tasks of draining, road 
building, establishing local shipping points, and building com- 
munities demand a large outlay of capital and a large enough 
population to establish a complete community of people. 


106 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Landless men who would seek the opportunities of individual 
home ownership on these lands are most often not financially 
able to clear the land of stumps and undergrowth or even to 
build their own homes and equip themselves for farming. 
The farm must be handed to them, cleared, partially im- 
proved, and possibly seeded. They must be furnished ample 
and supervised long-time credit. They must be furnished 
community facilities. 

The ideas presented here are not Utopian. They are the 
basis for the only probable methods of developing many of our 
reclamation areas. The Australian state settlements, the Dur- 
ham state settlement of California and the private settlement 
of Hugh McRae at Wilmington, North Carolina, are all exam- 
ples of the success of this method. All of them have been 
carried out in areas where all other methods have failed. All 
of them have demonstrated that this method, if successful 
financially, does reclaim the land, does help men to individual 
land ownership, and does establish high-class rural com- 
munities. Contrasted with this method of reclamation are the 
reverting of lands to idleness and wilderness and the tragic 
failure of individuals who have attempted to establish isolated 
homes in these areas. Furthermore, even where such lands 
have been brought under cultivation by means of corporate 
or individual large-scale development without the use of this 
method, tenant and hired-men farming has resulted. Recla- 
mation areas thus developed constitute the worst rural slums 
of America. The alternatives between which we must choose 
seem clear. There is some indication just at present that we 
will choose rightly. 

It ought now also to be clear that the land problem is more 
than a soil problem and, even more than an economic problem, 
that it is a problem of developing a rural civilization. Land 
is the basis of agriculture. Agriculture is the basis of rural 
life, and rural life and rural welfare are parts of the business 
of the nation. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Kry and Moorenouse, Hlements of Land Economics, The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York, 1924. 


LAND AND SOCIETY 107 


Meape, E., Helping Men Own Farms, The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1920. 

Scumipr and Ross, Readings in the Economic History of American Agri- 
culture, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1925. 

GueTtTe, J. M., Rural Sociology, Chap. XI, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1922. 


CHAPTER VI 
THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 
WHAT A STANDARD OF LIVING IS 


Standard of Living Is Variously Defined —As civilization 
advances, planes and levels of living rise. Whether this is 
good or not few people question. They simply accept the so- 
called higher levels and consciously or unconsciously strive to 
find satisfaction and comfort on each new level of living. 
Furthermore, they all have standards by which to measure 
their habits of and opportunities for the consumption of goods 
and time. By these standards they measure the adequacy of 
living. Among the things essential to life, in order that it 
may measure up to desired standards, are necessities, comforts, 
and even luxuries. All of these tacitly accepted desirable 
things are relative to the standards of the age in which people 
live, the communities where they reside, and their knowledge 
of how other people, particularly those of their own com- 
munity, are living. So-called necessities may be either those 
things which are essential for mere physical health and con- 
tinued existence or may be conventional necessities, such as 
modes of dress and modes of conveyance. Comforts are not 
only those things which drive away or keep away physical 
pain and discomfiture but also those things which give social 
and psychical complacency. Luxuries are relative to one an- 
other and relative to conventional necessities and psychic 
comforts. A standard of living may be one thing and a stand- 
ard of life may be another, in definitions. Here we are not 
quibbling over terms, however, but are only attempting to use 
some criteria by means of which we can measure the adequacy 
of farm life. We shall mean by standard of living, those 
material things, those uses of time, and those satisfactions 
which are a part of the habits of enough people to constitute 

108 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 109 


planes of living. The standard of living will thus include 
necessities, comforts, and luxuries—those things which persons 
enjoy and are unhappy without. The desires for these things 
are very real and all who have these desires strive to satisfy 
them. Furthermore, persons measure their success in life, to a 
large degree, in terms of their ability to satisfy these desires. 

The Elements in a Standard of Inving—Measurements 
have been established or constructed for practically all things 
with which human beings deal, pounds, ounces, tons, for meas- 
uring weights; inches, feet, yards, miles, for measuring dis- 
tances; cents, dollars, and other money forms for measuring 
market values and wealth; acres for measuring land, and so 
on, in every walk of life. Can we measure life and construct 
criteria for adequate and efficient living? The amount of free 
air space necessary for a healthy work or living environment 
is known; essential chemical constituents and calories of foods, 
for nourishments, are known; sickness and death rates are 
known; even measurements of intelligence status and learning 
are now being used. We measure human fatigue and strain, 
the reaction time of the senses, and attempt to measure men’s 
reactions to moral and artistic standards. Every social or 
economic institution has its standard of efficiency. Appar- 
ently all we need to do is to bring together our knowledge of 
biology, psychology, sociology, and economics and we will 
have criteria by means of which to measure life and living. 

In order to make our discussion concrete, a limited number 
of criteria or measurements will be used. These criteria do 
not measure all there is to life but they do establish accurate 
points of comparison and standards of value which cover the 
most outstanding desirable things in life. They will, there- 
fore, serve for a, necessarily brief, survey of rural life. The 
criteria or units of measurements are, food, clothing, shelter, 
health, education, religion, recreation, and social contacts. All 
these things are essential to a normal individual or community 
life. If any one of them is lacking, life is abnormal and if any 
one of them is not supplied in the quantity and quality which 
squares with physical needs or the social practices of others 
of our individual and community, life is unhappy. 


110 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 


General Facts and Conditions.—Practically all studies of 
standards of living have been based upon expenditures of 
money for consumption goods and economic and social serv- 
ices. It is true that in present-day economy almost all 
consumption goods and services are purchasable. Mere 
expenditure of money, however, cannot constitute a wholly 
satisfactory index to living, for uneconomical and wasteful 
expenditure of a given amount of money may buy a much 
smaller increment of goods and services to satisfy a given set 
of wants and desires than a less amount would buy if wisely 
spent. The expenditure of $100,000 in a poker game does not 
equal $1 spent in doctor’s service for a sick child. How people 
spend their time in satisfying needs, particularly in satisfying 
desires, is as important as how they spend their money. Rural 
people have fairly recently come fully under the market and 
price régime and to the degree that they produce their con- 
sumption goods on the farm they are not yet fully under it. 
Any measurement of market expenditure will, therefore, fail 
completely to represent the actual rural standard of living. 

The capacity to spend, for most people, is conditioned by 
the capacity to earn. The choice of whether to work harder, 
earn more, and thus have more to spend is an equally impor- 
tant choice with the proper choice between two alternative 
consumption goods. If rural people, in order to have cash in- 
come enough to make it possible for them to have elaborate 
outlays of physical goods and social services, must labor so 
hard and so long as to make them incapable of enjoying the 
goods and services which they purchase, it is highly doubtful 
whether they can be said to have a higher standard of living 
because of their mere capacity to spend money. No study, 
however, has yet been made of the time element in either 
earning or enjoying goods and services and, therefore, all we 
can do is to point out that since rural life is not being cast 
in a social scheme of such rigid division of labor and service as 
city life, the rural individual or family may very easily have 
a higher standard of living without the same trade in goods 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 111 


and services as is necessary in the case of the urban individual 
or family. 

Notwithstanding the difference between the setting and 
scheme of rural and city life, it is becoming an increasingly 
important fact that the standards of expenditure for goods 
that can be bought only in the market is the social and psychie 
standard that rural people desire.* On no other basis can the 
modern farmer’s mad drive for income and wealth, even at the 
cost of almost unending fatigue, be explained. A comparison 
of rural family standards of expenditure with those of city 
dwellers is, therefore, a comparison which is constantly, both 
unconsciously and consciously, in the farmer’s mind. 

A Brief Appraisal of the Rural Standard of Living.—How 
does the farm standard of living compare with city standards 
in terms of food, clothing, shelter (housing and housing facili- 
ties), health, education, religion, recreation, and social con- 
tacts? To measure American agriculture in these terms is 
more important to the farmer than to measure it in terms of 
land incorporated in farms, acres under cultivation, value of 
crops and animals produced, or the number of people em- 
ployed in agricultural pursuits. 

Food.—Food is of importance as to quantity, quality, and 
consumption habits. In mere quantities of food consumed, 
the American farm family apparently far out-ranks the Amer- 
ican city family. This is not a sure index to a more adequate 
food standard, however, due to the fact that people can eat 
too much as well as have too little to eat, and because farm 
people are almost universally outdoor, manual laborers, and 
thus require large quantities of food. The type of farm food 
is for the most part good, particularly if the garden, orchard, 
and cow furnish their share of it. The food can be fresh and 
well balanced in both nutrition and vitamines. Farm women 
are notably good cooks, only, however, in that they know how 
to cook all kinds of foods and cook them in ways that the 
family has learned to like. The home demonstration agents 
have found that there is much to be done in the field of teach- 


*The term “market” here is used in the very broad sense to include all 
things for which money is expended. 


112 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


ing balanced diets and less use of the frying pan. Farm food 
standards probably measure favorably with or above those of 
the city. Although many farm tenants of the lower class and 
farm families that follow a pure cash cropping system “set a 
very meager table” there is practically never found in rural 
districts such food destitution as leads to the bread and soup 
lines in great cities. 

Clothing.—There are two aspects of the clothing problem, 
that of being well clad, and that of being well dressed. Rural 
people, for the most part, are well clad for the lives that they 
live and the work that they do. They are at times compelled 
to wear dirty clothes and often, because of the quick and 
periodic changes from outdoors to indoors, are not able to, or 
do not, accommodate their clothing to the overheated condi- 
tions of the indoors. Freezing to death because of lack of 
normal clothing is not often heard of among country people, 
but is by no means an unheard of thing among the destitute 
of the city. 

The differences, so prevalent a generation ago, between the 
countryman and the townsman in dress are not so common 
now, and yet rural people probably do not measure up to city 
people in being well dressed. The stern attitudes of country 
parents often forbid that their children follow the fashion very 
closely. Country people wear work clothes most of the time, 
and the men’s suits of clothes and the women’s dresses are 
likely to be out of fashion before they are sufficiently worn 
out for their owners to feel justified in discarding them. 

A country parent should be apprised of the subtle influence 
that being poorly dressed has upon the personality of young 
people. Country boys or girls, who cannot hold up their 
heads in the presence of all with whom they meet are com- 
pelled to develop feelings and attitudes that become woven 
into their personalities and against which they rebel bitterly. 
In the case of the first of these effects, permanent damage is 
done to self-respect and in case of the second there is devel- 
oped, on the base of a seemingly trivial thing, a dislike for the 
whole country régime of life. 

Shelter.—As will be pointed out in the chapter on the rural 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 113 


home (Chap. LX), rural housing is one of the weakest spots 
in rural life. Usually no one but a poor man or a miser lives 
in a poor house. But in the rural districts people live in poor 
houses because of the lack of such public utilities as sewer, 
water, and lighting systems, and because the house, in com- 
petition with other farm buildings, does not yield economic 
income. The yard is seldom beautified and the house is poorly 
heated, lighted, and ventilated. The organization and ar- 
rangements of rooms are poor and household conveniences are 
meager. A part of the rural housing equipment is the work- 
ing conveniences such as running water, sinks, and labor- 
saving devices. These are less prevalent in rural homes than 
in city homes. In fact, in every way, whether in space, room 
arrangement, equipment, or sanitation, the rural house does 
not measure up either to scientific or city housing standards. 

Health—It is usually assumed that rural people enjoy 
positive health and health opportunities far in excess of those 
who live in the city. That this is, to a considerable degree, 
a fallacy, will be seen in the chapter on rural health (Chap. 
XV). Farm work is hard and unremitting, often carried on 
in extreme weather exposure, and to a degree of excessive 
fatigue. Sanitary equipment and disease prevention are not 
easy to obtain in rural districts. The health facilities of doc- 
tors, nurses, drug stores, hospitals, and clinics are located 
chiefly a long distance from the farm family. Sickness or 
“weakliness” is often thought of among rural people as a dis- 
grace, and many damaging superstitions still prevail in rural 
districts. In matters of health rural people do not enjoy ad- 
vantages equal to city people. 

Education.—Education consists in learning to work, earn, 
and live in a world of human events. The rural child learns 
one occupation by a very apt apprenticeship. He learns to 
earn probably as well or better than the average child in 
the city. In becoming acquainted with the world, he is handi- 
capped both by lack of outside contacts and of school oppor- 
tunities. His school equipment, school year, and school 
attendance are all short of city standards. The value of school 
property, amount spent for expenditures and permanent 


114 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


equipment per school child are all less in rural regions than 
in cities. The rural teacher is more poorly paid, and less ex- 
perienced than the average city teacher. Libraries, reading 
material, museums, zoological gardens, or art galleries to sup- 
plement school training are fewer in the country than in the 
city. In every way, the rural standard of living suffers because 
of lack of educational opportunity. 

Religion —The only way rural religion can be measured is 
in terms of church, Sunday school, and other institutional 
equipment, in terms of ministers’ salaries and in opportunities 
for participation in institutional religious activities. The 
rural church building, the salary of the minister, and the fre- 
quency of organized religious programs are all meager in the 
country in comparison with the city. Other religious agencies, 
such as the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., and the Salvation 
Army, work chiefly in cities. By means of the only quan- 
titative standards available, the rural standard of living suffers 
because of lack of religious equipment and opportunity. 

Recreation.—Opportunities for play, play equipment, and 
expenditure for amusement and recreation are less in the coun- 
try than in the city. Adults in the rural districts scarcely 
play at all. They quite often consider such things foolish 
and even immoral. Rural children do not have the advan- 
tages of organized playgrounds or supervised play. Their 
community does not provide the space, the equipment, or the 
supervision, and their parents do not provide the money for 
elaborate participation in commercial recreation. The rural 
standard suffers in comparison to the city standard in this 
respect. 

Social Contacts.—Social contacts can be measured statis- 
tically only by the frequencies of meetings with other people. 
Rural life is comparatively meager in institutional gatherings, 
volunteer social and business gatherings, opportunities to 
meet people from other families and other communities than 
their own. The isolation of the rural home and the neces- 
sary restrictions of the farm enterprise rob the rural resident 
of any great opportunity for social contacts. In frequency of 
personal contacts rural life falls far short of city life. 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 115 


If a brief generalization in a comparison of rural with urban 
life by means of the elements in the standard of living were 
made a crude picture of the social and psychological setting 
of rural life would be shown. It may be that city life has 
no right to set the standard, but it does. Rural people, like 
all people in all times and all places, do and will continue 
to measure the satisfactoriness of their composite existence 
by the criterion of favorable comparison with that of other 
people whom they know or of whom they have heard. This 
comparison is, therefore, not a strained or a theoretical thing. 
It is an attempt to bring together some quantitative measure- 
ment of those things which furnish the every-day facilities 
of life, by means of which it satisfies or does not satisfy the 
people who have these facilities. Let us, therefore, for graphic 
purposes list the crude comparisons of rural and urban facili- 
ties and practices, and then visualize rural life in terms of 
its standard of living. Each element in the standard of living 
is placed in the city or the country column, according to the 
advantage which each environment offers: 


TABLE 5.—CoOMPARISONS IN STANDARD OF LiviING 


Country City 

EES i cic asell og a AN RI? BULA) ent ay RI tb DPS AA Ah eo AAR A A 
BeTOreNINCUWeLl CIRC) 2s surute alas datels oF <s Clothing (well dressed) 
tte tke A SIRS RR MR A SEO AL Shelter (housing and facilities) 
HioaLbO) (CN VITONMenb) wk. ee aie lens oe Health (facilities) 
MEE PPh ted OP. Ca shars! este bh cla eoe le? & Education 
oe pan A OES ON ttt atid Religion (institutional equipment etc.) 
on ce AN ae ae RA a a DN NAPE A Recreation (time and equipment) 
NE Pea iia tase ald fuk a oe) aid aA t het Social contacts 

TauraWadvantares Bi so des) sas City advantages 7 


Statistical and Detailed Studies of the Rural Standard of 
Living.—The broad generalizations made in the immediately 
preceding section of this chapter were not stated in statis- 
tical terms. A great number of statistical studies of standards 
of living have been made, the findings of which were used in 
formulating these generalizations, No single study has in- 


116 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


cluded in its scope of investigation both urban and rural 
populations. Until this is done the psychological elements 
of the influence of one standard of living on the other will 
not be given due consideration, for rural people, like other 
people, do not so much measure their satisfactions of life by 
statistical or scientific standards as they do by community 
or customary standards. Today their community and their 
observation of its life includes the city. 

If the standard of living is to be measured in terms of the 
amount of family expenditure, the price levels of the year 
in which the budgets are studied will always have to be taken 
into consideration. Professor W. F. Ogburn, of Columbia Uni- 
versity, in a careful estimate of the “minimum of comfort 
level” for a family of five, estimated in 1918, the necessary 
expenditure of $1,760. Adjusting these estimates to present 
price levels would demand about $2,000. The United States 
Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated for families living in 
Washington, D. C., in 1919, a necessary annual expenditure of 
$2,262. These figures can be left to stand because of the 
very slight difference between the price level of that year and 
the years in which the rural estimates used here were made. 
The minimum budget of the New York Factory Commission, 
made from a study conducted in 1915 on the basis of 1914 
expenditure, was $876. Raising this figure so as to adjust 
it to the price levels of the years in which the rural studies 
were made would make this estimate $1,559. The New York 
Factory Commission’s estimate was for a “minimum family 
budget,’ Professor Ogburn’s was for a “minimum of com- 
fort level,’ and the Bureau of Labor Survey was for a “level 
of health and decency among government employees.” It 
would therefore be fair to take the average of the three as our 
city standard. This would be $1,940 per year per family. 

If we take rural standard of living studies made in Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, Texas, New York, Alabama, and Iowa we 
find that the expenditures per rural family average $1,642 


“Report on the Steel Strike, Appendix A, pp. 225-263, Harcourt, Brace 
and Howe, Inc., New York, 1920. 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 117 


per year. In these studies were included 2,032 farm families.* 
The value of home-produced foods, house rent, and all other 
items for which city people would have to pay cash are in- 
cluded in the estimates. The family expenditures per year 
ranged from $1,122.50 per family in Tennessee to $2,012 in 
New York. One of the studies in Kentucky showed an annual 
expenditure of $1,614.10. This more nearly approaches the 
average for the whole 2,032 families than any other. We may 
therefore take it as a basis for more detailed analyses. The 
following table presents the distribution of the family budget 
between the different items in the standard of living. 

TaBLE 6.—DISTRIBUTION OF AVERAGE EXPENDITURE AMONG DIFFERENT 


Grovurs oF ITemMs FOR THE YEAR ENDING JULY 1, 1923 or 360 
Farm Famitigs oF Mason County, KEntTucKY 


Owner Tenant All 
Families, | Families, | Families, 


ioe Per cent | Percent | Per cent 

(229) (131) (860) 
PUREE RIEN etn el oy od! ye. fuse PANE pal ila Sie ee 34.5 ASS 37.0 
“SENAY OS 2 SAA Tye Oe TOUR EOIN GE 14.6 15.0 14.7 
tet an pM oes) TOG ee Ce diclG eA |, 14.4 10.9 13.4 
CULAR Ta avg) 122 2 EIB at Sel pr Ea Sale A ga 1.9 21 2.0 
Dperating: expenses ./n5 220) Wika de aliens 14.8 121 14.0 
Pieonance Of Health ass vices kes eee es 3.0 3.5 Gig 
REV ANCEINEN Gi Water Mls tele nee ei. G77 2.9 5.6 
ETRE UTATEN 2 DWC eae OUR ASE PUPA Dae Pass 1.8 2.0 
10) PUTCES Sch ps SED RI Le NO Lg 7.6 8.0 rie w 
POPS TOU PN tnt Soret eee cate eta 4 4 4 


If we now take the expenditure of the city budget, we 
find that food represents 35.5 per cent of the annual family 
expenditure, clothing, 17.8 per cent, and housing 16.9 per 
cent. In these three items are included some of the expend- 
itures that appear under furnishings and operating expend- 
itures in the farm family budget. If these three items are 
resolved into common terms we find that the rural families 


1 All of these studies were conducted in cooperation with the Bureau of 
Agriculture Economics of the United States Department of Agriculture. The 
Report of the separate studies can be obtained from that source. The 
estimates given here are based upon weighted averages of the number of 
farm families studied in the various states. 


118 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


spend 75.1 per cent of their total budget for these three 
facilities while city families expend only 70.2 per cent of 
their annual budget for them. The country families expend 
a larger per cent for food and the city families a larger per 
cent for clothing. Of the farm family budget $1,283 is ex- 
pended in these three items, leaving only $331.50 to be spent 
for all other items. Of the city family budget $1,362 was 
spent for these three items leaving $578 to be spent for other 
things. It is the other expenditures that buy service, educa- 
tion, recreation, and similar cultural goods and services. It is 
impossible to carry the comparison further because of the 
difference in the two methods of classifying expenditures. 
The facts cited here are sufficient to show that the direction 
and content of our brief appraisal of the farmer’s standard of 
living is based on statistical studies as well as on wide per- 
sonal observation. 


MODIFYING THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 


Modification Under Pressure.—A sufficiently large number 
of studies of standards of living have been made to make it 
possible to know generally what happens to different types 
of expenditures when the family budget is subjected to pres- 
sure. Engel’s four famous laws are generalizations of this 
type. Ernst Engel in 1857 made a careful study of the family 
budgets of Belgian and Saxon working people. He studied 
the findings reported in Le Play’s, Family Monographs, for- 
mulated as schedule of normal distribution of expenditures, 
and carefully observed what happened to this distribution 
under different family incomes. His four laws are: 

1. As the income of a family increased, a smaller percentage 
of it was expended for food. 

2. As the income of a family increased, the percentage of 
expenditure for clothing remained approximately the same. 

3. With all the incomes investigated, the percentage of ex- 
penditure for rent, fuel, and light remained invariably the 
same. 

4, As the income increased in amount, a constantly increas- 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 119 


ing percentage was expended for education, health, recreation, 
amusement, etc.' Engel’s laws are stated in terms of in- 
creasing incomes but the exact reverse would of course be 
true with decreasing incomes. 

Professor Streightoff modifies Engel’s laws to some degree. 
His two most important modifications are: First, that the 
expenditures for fuel and light do not remain the same with 
increasing incomes but decrease relatively to increasing in- 
comes; and, second, that expenditures for cultural wants in- 
crease both absolutely and relatively with increasing incomes.? 

The correctness of generalizations one and four, concerning 
the tendency in the distribution of family income under the 
economic pressure of low incomes, has been borne out in 
every standard of living study made since Engel made his 
study, whether the study was of urban or rural family budgets. 
We have already noted in the comparison between urban and 
rural incomes that the physical needs absorbed a larger per- 
centage of the rural budget. The same rule holds true, in the 
main, when a comparison is made between different rural 
family budgets. In the Alabama study of rural family budgets 
the average expenditure for food was 59.9 per cent of the 
whole budget when the income was below $1,000 per year, 
and was only 31.9 per cent when the income was $3,000 or 
more for the year. In the $1,000 income group 92.8 per cent 
of the entire Income was expended for purely physical neces- 
sities, not including health. This left only 7.2 per cent, or 
$72, to be expended for health, cultural needs and desires, 
and for savings. In the $3,000 group only 74.1 per cent was 
expended for physical needs, not including health, leaving 
25.9 per cent, or $777, for health, cultural wants, and savings. 
In the survey it was shown that the expenditures for cloth- 
ing decreased regularly with decreasing incomes, that the pro- 
portion for rent, furniture and furnishings, health, and per- 
sonal uses remained about the same in all budgets, though, 
of course, the lower-income families expended in dollars and 


*For an account of Engel’s study reported in English, see Cuapin, R. C., 
Standard of Living, p. 11, 1909. 

*SrreicHtorr, F. H., The Standard of Living among the Industrial People 
of America, pp. 12-20, Houghton, Mifflin Company, New York, 1911. 


120 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


cents less money for these things. Not only was the absolute 
expenditure for house and home furnishings less among the 
lower-income families but the houses in which the poorer fam- 
ilies lived were quite universally smaller. 

The Influence of Tenancy upon the Rural Standard of 
Inving Is Universally to Depress it—This is not so marked 
in the Middle West and such eastern states as New York, 
but is very marked in the Southern States where the tenants 
are scarcely entrepreneurs at all. The standards of living 
for the Southern States are lower than those for New York 
and Iowa in the six rural studies mentioned above. ‘The 
standards of living are universally lower among the tenants 
than among the owners in the Southern States. In the 
Alabama study the total tenant expenditures were found to 
be approximately 35 per cent below those for the owners, 
although tenant families were 9 per cent larger. Among the 
upper-income families the expenditures were approximately 
50 per cent below those for the owners. The cropper families, 
however, were 40 per cent smaller than the owner families. 
In Kentucky, Texas, and Tennessee about the same com- 
parisons obtain. 

The modification in the distribution of the family incomes 
between different items also holds true in the case of tenant 
and cropper families. A larger proportion of the expenditure 
of tenants than of owners must go for physical necessities 
and, consequently, both a smaller proportion and a very much 
smaller absolute amount is left for advancement, health, 
savings, and cultural wants. The owner families of the states 
of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas expended 17.2 per cent 
of their family budgets for health, savings, and cultural wants 
while the tenant families expended only 12.9 per cent, and 
the cropper families expended only 9.2 per cent, for these 
items. When figured in dollars and cents, the smaller pro- 
portions of smaller budgets means a very small outlay for 
anything except dire physical necessities. In Alabama, the 
expenditure for the items of health, savings, and cultural 
wants was shown to be only $100.60 per family among tenants, 
and $61.70 among croppers’ families as compared with $268.30 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 121 


among owner families. In a survey of 1000 families in North 
Carolina it was found that the tenants lived in smaller houses, 
had poorer education, gave less to churches, attended recrea- 
tion and amusement events less often, and in every way had 
a lower standard of living than the owners had.t 

One Crop or Few Crop Systems of Agriculture-—These con- 
ditions apparently tend to reduce the standards of living of 
the people who follow them. A calculation of the cultural 
facilities and practices of farm families living in the nine 
states east of the Mississippi River and south of Kentucky, 
including Kentucky and excluding Florida, showed a higher 
rate of illiteracy among the native-born whites, less reading 
materials in farm homes, and fewer telephones than in farm 
houses of the nation at large. In some of these areas, over 
99 per cent of the land under cultivation was planted to cotton 
and tobacco. Comparisons were made between the counties 
of various states which produced cotton almost to the ex- 
clusion of all other crops. In as far as comparisons were pos- 
sible it was found that the deficiency in cultural facilities was 
magnified in these counties in comparison to the counties of 
the same states that were following a more diversified form 
of agriculture. The exclusive production of single or few 
crops robs the family of home produced supplies, magnifies 
the tendency toward a tenant system of farming, and seldom 
ever produces a steady accumulation of farm wealth. 

Modifications of the Rural Standard of Living by Con- 
scious Choice between Values of Different Items in the 
Standard.—The point has already been made that a standard 
of living cannot be measured wholly in terms of cash expen- 
ditures. But even if it is, there is always present the oppor- 
tunity to sacrifice one expenditure for another. A better house 
may be sacrificed in order to educate the children. A greater 
expenditure for clothing or housing may be sacrificed to pro- 


* ZIMMERMAN and Tayrtor, Hconomic and Social Condition of North Caro- 
lina Farmers, North Carolina State College of Agriculture, Raleigh, North 
Carolina, 1922. 

* Paper read by the author before the North Carolina State Conference of 
Social Service on “The Influence of Cotton and Tobacco in Southern Civiliza- 
tion,” July, 1925. 


122 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


vide more wholesome and more elaborate recreation and 
amusement facilities and opportunities. Rural people, like 
people everywhere, can and do modify their standards of 
living by these means. There is always the possibility of 
more economical expenditure for the necessary physical items 
and a consequent saving of money which may be spent for 
cultural items. There are the opportunities for using one’s 
time in such a way as to get satisfactions in life which do 
not cost money and cannot be bought for money. While the 
standard of living of a family is necessarily prejudiced by 
economic income in a society as thoroughly dominated by a 
price system as ours is, there is always opportunity, except 
possibly among the most poverty-stricken families, for the 
modification of the mode of living by conscious choice be- 
tween possible satisfactions. 

The Psychology of a Standard of Living—A standard of 
living, as we have seen, is composed of those things which 
give satisfaction or enjoyment to those participating in it. 
Similarly it is likely to give discontent and unhappiness to 
those who observe it being enjoyed by others but not avail- 
able to themselves. Farm people have been criticised for 
wanting to use goods which are a part of the habits of con- 
sumption of the higher-income families of city life. This is 
but natural, now that they come constantly in contact with 
city people and observe their modes of life. It is only by the 
urge obtained by such observations or through conscious 
education that all standards of living have been raised. The 
comforts of one class may not at one time be even the lux- 
uries of another, but constant contact of the two classes would 
either demand a leveling up or cause the handicapped and 
restricted class to rebel in one way or another. Sooner or 
later the luxuries of all classes who live in contact with one 
another must approach equality, or discontent will be per- 
petual. Rural people are now a part of the larger com- 
munity and so will continue to strive for the larger com- 
munity’s standard of living. 

But even though the standard of living always tends to 
rise, pulled by those at the top who live more sumptuously, 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 123 


it rises comparatively slowly. It is a composite of life’s con- 
sumption habits and has tremendous inertia. This is why 
rural people, in the mountains and other isolated places, are 
sometimes called our “contemporaneous ancestors.” They are 
only slightly influenced by contacts with the outside world 
and so tend to perpetuate their old levels of life. The psy- 
chology of protest among farmers, while steadily increasing, 
is sught when compared to that of the handicapped classes 
of the city who live daily face to face with luxury standards of 
living. 

The recession from a standard of living once attained is 
as slow as the rise to a new standard of living. Once a level 
of consumption and satisfactions is attained, it quickly be- 
comes custom bound. This is partly the explanation of 
farmer protests following even comparatively brief high-price 
levels. During these periods of prosperity, farmers taste the 
new satisfactions and refuse to relinquish them when the 
depression follows. Farms are mortgaged, the drift to cities 
is augmented, and all kinds of farmer protest organizations 
arise in an attempt to maintain the standards of living which 
they have newly established. Farmers may be wholly un- 
conscious of the psychological facts which operate in their 
standard of living, but they are always there and no amount 
of ignorance concerning them nor any preaching about them 
will renounce them. They will always tend to urge the 
standard up when in contact with other people of higher 
standards and to keep them on accustomed levels once these 
levels are attained. 


IMPROVING THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 


Better and More Efficient Farming.—That the standard of 
living may be improved by greater efficiency in professional 
and occupational technique is usually accepted as true. The 
universal and continual rise in standards of living from one 
generation to another is largely to be explained by society’s 
capacity to make better adaptations to and utilizations of 
nature. The fruits of the development of new physical wealth 


124 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


usually accrue, partially at least, to those who initiate its 
production. There is no doubt that in those areas of most 
fertile land and best farm production the standards of living 
are higher than in the less fertile and poorer areas. Examples 
are numerous of the better farmers of given communities 
profiting and succeeding, in comparison with their neighbors, 
because of the wise choice of crops, better selection of breeds, 
and more careful methods of cultivation and harvesting. It 
is not apparent, however, that the tremendous emphasis 
placed on improved methods of production by colleges of agri- 
culture, the United States Department of Agriculture, and 
state departments of agriculture has always resulted in higher 
standards of living among rural people. The accomplishment 
of “making two blades of grass grow where one previously 
grew” has undoubtedly raised the standard of living for 
society as a whole but it has not raised the standard of living 
for farm families commensurately with that of some other 
segments of our society, and has come near leaving some 
classes of our farm population with static standards of living. 

Better Business Methods.—The task of business is to trans- 
late physical wealth into cash dividends. By so doing, it 
converts goods into capital, and makes it possible for people 
engaged in one specialized occupation to buy those goods 
and services produced and furnished by other specialized pro- 
ducing groups. In a day of division of labor, price, and market 
systems, the possible standard of living of a family depends 
largely upon how much money it can make its occupation 
or occupations produce. By a wise organization of the farm 
enterprise, a farmer can get the maximum use of his land, the 
best combination of crops, and maximum labor uses for him- 
self and his work animals. To teach him how to do this is 
the task of the science of Farm Management. Gains to be 
made, or already made, in this field of endeavor are little short 
of startling. Not only can a farmer by better uses and or- 
ganization of his fields and by a better distribution of his 
own and his work animals’ time assure himself greater cash 
income, but he can greatly enhance the standards of living 
of his family by the production of vegetables, fruits, dairy 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 125 


products, meat supply, poultry, and eggs. This is a step that 
must be taken in many farming sections, particularly in the 
cash-crop and tenant-farming sections, before much of any- 
thing else can be done to improve the standard of living of 
the people who live in these areas. 

The second scientific business approach to increasing the 
farm standard of living is in better methods of marketing. 
The farm products are grown in the fields but the dividends 
are declared in the market places. Farming is now largely a 
commercial enterprise and must depend upon commercial 
technique to be successful. Not only must farmers learn how 
to merchandise their products but they must learn to pro- 
duce those types and standards of goods which the consuming 
public, with its critical buying mind and semi-luxury demands, 
wants. Furthermore, farmers must learn to produce only 
those quantities which the markets of the world can absorb 
at prices which will yield profits to the farmer. This will 
largely mean the abandonment of producing by custom only 
those crops and other products which generations of ancestors 
have produced in given areas. The lag in the farmer’s level 
of living is in no small measure to be explained by the fact 
that farmers have not yet adjusted themselves to a commer- 
cial type of farming which business methods and criteria dic- 
tate that the farmer must do to succeed. 

Teaching, Directly, Better Methods of Inving—The stand- 
ard of living of any given family is established by two chief 
factors—the physical wants that arise out of organic exist- 
ence, and the desires stimulated by social contacts and train- 
ing. The knowledge of physiology, medicine, dietetics, and 
similar sciences dealing specifically with the human body and 
organic processes is sufficient to establish standards by which 
people can live efficiently. All, who seek to improve condi- 
tions and habits making for human efficiency and welfare, 
should be concerned with applying the findings of these 
sciences to life. In rural districts this means promoting the 
work of the home economist, the dietitian, and the school and 
public health nurse. It means the placing of home economics 
in the rural common school curricula. It means using every 


126 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


method possible to encourage farm people to use the same 
scientific procedure in rearing their children and providing 
for their families that they are rapidly learning to use in the 
feeding and management of their livestock. It means the 
placing of at least an equal and preferably a greater emphasis 
upon the human or life side of agriculture than is now placed 
upon the technical production and business aspect of farming. 

Many elements in the rural standard of hving cannot 
be supplied in the farm home, no matter how great the eco- 
nomic income may be. Such items as health, recreation, 
education, religion, and social contacts must be supplied by 
community action and community institutions. This means 
that farmers, if they would raise their standard of living, must 
be willing to pay higher taxes for schools, roads, hospitals, 
and parks. They must learn to codperate in furnishing vol- 
unteer social services for their families and communities. 

Mrs. Winifred Stuart Gibbs shows that by direct. teaching 
of health, housing, home conveniences, dietetics, and cloth- 
ing standards, it is comparatively easy to improve the stand- 
ards of living of a family without increasing its income. She 
lists case after case where these things were definitely accom- 
plished within one year’s time among New York City families." 
The annual reports of the Farm Home Demonstration Agents 
for the various states give ample and almost startling proof 
of similar accomplishments. 

Dr. E. L. Kirkpatrick shows, in his New York State study 
of the rural standard of living, that there are very definite 
correlations between certain items in the standard of living 
and the whole set of expenditures and consumption habits of 
the families which he studied. These specific items he discov- 
ered to be education, housing, religion, vacation trips, and 
reading facilities. The high correlations may be due chiefly 
to the fact that it is only those families that can afford high 
standards of living that can afford these social facilities. But 
it may also suggest the points at which farm life can be at- 
tacked most advantageously in order to improve its whole 


*Gisss, Winirrep 8., The Minimum Cost of Living, pp. 49-93, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York, 1917. 


THE RURAL STANDARD OF LIVING 127 


standard of living. At any rate, he found no such close cor- 
relation between either the size of the farm business or the 
production of crops with the total family standard of lving 
as he found between the social items and values, and the 
total family standard of living. Men do not farm just to see 
how much pork they can produce in one hog. Neither do they 
farm merely “to make two blades of grass grow where one 
previously grew,’ though both of these are laudable under- 
takings. They are, however, only means to an end. The 
end and real purpose of the farmer is to obtain, by means of 
his farm enterprise and out of the advantages of country life, 
an adequate and satisfying life for himself, his family, and 
his community. This adequacy and these satisfactions are 
measured by his standard of living. All farmers, and all who 
are interested in rural welfare, must learn to measure farm 
efficiency in these terms, and ardently strive to increase their 
quantity and quality. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


SrreicHtorr, F. H., The Standard of Living among the Industrial People 
of America, Houghton, Mifflin Company, New York, 1911. 

CuaPin, R. C., The Standard of Living among Workingmen’s Families in 
New York City, 1909. 

“Various Studies of Living Conditions and Cost of Living in Farm Homes in 
Various States of the United States,” Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Kirkpatrick, E. L., “The Standard of Life in a Typical Section of Diversified 
Farming,” Bulletin 423, New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Ithaca, New York, 1923. 

Gripps, Winirrep S., The Minimum Cost of Living, The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York, 1917. 

Gatpin, C. J., Rural Social Problems, Chap. III, The Century Company, New 
York, 1924. 


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RURAL SOCIAL PROBLEMS 


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CHAPTER VII 
THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMUNICATION IN RURAL LIFE 


Isolation and Contacts.—Isolation, in a relative sense, is 
probably as universal an index to rural life as any other one 
thing. Certainly it is in marked contrast to the congestion 
of cities. The per capita population per square mile in Iowa 
is 40, in Kansas is 20, in Wyoming and Arizona is less than 2, 
and in Nevada less than 1 per square mile. The per capita 
population per square mile in Rhode Island is 508, and in 
Massachusetts is 418. In New York City the population per 
square mile is 12,160, and in certain blocks in the heart of the 
city the density of population reaches 1,458 per acre or 
933,120 per square mile. ‘There are single blocks in New York 
that have as many people crowded into them as live in one- 
third of the whole state of Arizona. Of course these are the 
two extremes of congestion and isolation. They are cited 
merely to emphasize the fact that in comparison with the city 
the country has very few opportunities for contacts. 

The general effects of social isolation and its opposite, social 
contacts, are so well known that we need do little more than 
name them. Social evolution, social progress, and developing 
civilization, can all be spelled in terms of increasing human 
contacts. Increasing human contacts universally depend 
upon means of communication and transportation. Human 
thinking itself has developed almost wholly through the use 
of language. An individual who is robbed of the means of 
language, we call dumb. Human personality is developed 
through contacts. Civilization never has and cannot now de- 
velop in isolation. It always follows in the paths of com- 
munication and transportation. The trade routes of the world 
for a long time dictated the location and expansion of civiliza- 

131 


132 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


tion. Rome never effectively expanded the power of her 
government beyond the end of her roads. England is the 
world empire she is today because of her merchant marine. 
The United States has developed by means of her railways and 
waterways, and it is extremely doubtful whether she would at 
this time be a union, if it were not for her great network of 
transportation and communication. The Berlin to Bagdad 
Railroad was the hinge of the Pan-German Empire scheme. 
The means of transportation and communication are as perti- 
nent to civilization today as they ever were, and they are each 
day growing more numerous and varied and subtle. We live 
so habitually in their midst that we fail to recognize their func- 
tion and significance, and yet, if we were to be robbed of them 
for twenty-four hours, we would feel isolated indeed. No 
rural community is completely devoid of all means of com- 
munication. Just in the degree, however, that one, or many, 
of the modern technologies of communication is lacking, to 
that degree the community is isolated, for isolation is not so 
much a matter of geographic distance as it is lack of human 
contacts. 

The Agencies of Communication.—Roads, waterways, steam 
railroads, electric roads—street cars and interurbans—air 
routes, all the vehicles of transportation, telegraphs, tele- 
phones, cables, wireless, books, papers and magazines, busi- 
ness and personal correspondence, and word of mouth are 
direct agencies of communication. There is not one of these 
that is not more prevalent in the city than in the country. 
There is scarcely one of them that is not becoming more com- 
mon in the rural districts year after year. The chief motif in 
the story from pioneer to modern times is that of developing 
means of transportation and communication. The story itself 
is one of transforming bleak isolation into the fair degree of so- 
cialization. Increased facilities of transportation and com- 
munication have, in fact, been the chief agencies for develop- 
ing in the farmer a consciousness of the rural problem. They 
have thrown him into contact with the outside world, given 
him ideals of progress, and desires which were not his a few 
years ago. They have caused him to see the possibility of 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 133 


developing a real society or community in his native environ- 
ment by bringing into it a knowledge of, and contact with, the 
remainder of society. His schools, his churches, his homes, 
and everything he does or thinks are today different because 
of his increasing means of contact. 

Previous to the development of these means of communi- 
cation, rural society was like a powerful giant without a 
nervous system with which to coordinate its activities, or ap- 
praise its pain and pleasures. With this nervous system sup- 
plied, rural communities and rural societies are not only be- 
coming coordinated in their activity but highly conscious of 
their pains, pleasures, and aspirations. Few people know 
how rapidly the transformation has taken place and fewer still 
appreciate its significance to the economic and social life of 
those who live on the farm, and likewise to our national life. 
Because this is true, this chapter will attempt to set forth the 
facts concerning the development and present status of these 
means of transportation and communication, and venture 
some interpretation of these facts. 


RURAL TRANSPORTATION 


The Development and Influence of Railroads —We have had 
our railroads so long in the United States that we now take 
them as a matter of course. If we will but contrast our agri- 
cultural position with that of Russia, China, India, Africa, or 
even sections of South America, where great potential agri- 
cultural areas are undeveloped economically or socially, or if 
we will but contrast the position of the mid-western and west- 
ern farmer of today, with his position fifty to eighty years ago, 
we will quickly grasp the significance of railway development 
to the development of agriculture. The United States has 
today 37.5 per cent of the railroad mileage of the world. We 
have a greater railroad mileage than all Europe combined, 
and practically as much railroad mileage as all the other great 
agricultural areas of the world combined. Without these rail- 
roads there is no reason to believe we would be more advanced 
agriculturally than Russia or India, for the agriculture of 


134 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and other states similarly lo- 
cated did not develop and never would have developed to any 
considerable degree had men been compelled to continue to 
haul their crops and drive their livestock from twenty-five to 
hundreds of miles to market. Imagine the development of 
the California fruit industry, lying as it does 2,500 miles away 
from the field of consumption, with no outlet to central mar- 
kets. Before the advent of railroads, production for the mar- 
ket, even in our now greatest agricultural areas, was restricted 
to a narrow strip on each side of the great navigable streams, 
such as the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers. The very 
extensiveness of our agricultural domain demanded an era of 
railroad expansion as a pre-fact to a great agricultural era. 

The more outstanding effects upon agriculture of our rail- 
road expansion and developments are as follows: 

1. Agriculture became an enterprise when it began produc- 
ing for the market. Previous to the time that it became pos- 
sible to market the surplus production of certain farming 
areas, the farmers of these areas were of little more than sen- 
timental concern to society at large. Agricultural neighbor- 
hoods were isolated atoms of society whose existence was of 
little concern to others, except as they were connected by blood 
relationships and friendships of the past, or had some possi- 
bility of future contacts. With the extension of railroads into 
the areas where these pioneers live, there developed on the 
part of the farmer the opportunity to produce for profit, and 
on the part of society at large, an opportunity to benefit from 
the production of great food supplies. There was created a 
market demand and market supply relationship which trans- 
formed an isolated, self-sufficient lot of producers into the 
great national world enterprise of farming. 

2. The development of those great and immense productive 
areas into market sources stabilized the food markets of the 
world. For every food area that was tapped by a new line 
of transportation, there was a decreasing possibility of the 
consuming public being left hungry by the failure of one or 
more other food areas. The agitation for protection by means 
of tariff against other food-producing sections of the world 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 135 


is but an index to the influence of the present transportability 
of raw products. 

3. A better-adapted system of agricultural production was 
made possible by the development of markets, and markets 
were the direct result of transportation development. Com- 
mercial fruit growing is a product of the last 100 years. The 
California fruit industry is a direct result of transcontinental 
railway development. 

Vegetable gardening was almost purely a household industry 
until methods of rapid transportation and good refrigeration 
were developed. The poultry and egg industries, which now 
constitute an annual business of over $1,000,000,000 in the 
United States would have remained forever infant industries 
without railroads. The marketable milk zones of our great 
cities have expanded from the distance of a team’s haul from 
the city to a distance, in the case of great cities, of 250 miles. 
Before the development of rapid transit routing, refrigeration, 
and other modern transportation facilities, men who wanted 
to farm for profit could do very little by way of adapting pro- 
duction to profits on one side, and location, climate, and soil 
conditions on the other side. ‘Today the great vegetable and 
fruit industries are the best examples of the results of the 
new development. 

4. Farmers were able to get foods from other sections of the 
nation and the world by exchanging agricultural surplus prod- 
ucts for them. Self-sufficient, isolated farming was never 
sufficient for more than a crude existence. The standard of 
living on the farm began to rise when the farmer began to 
buy and sell in the world markets. 

5. National unity and national greatness have been greatly 
aided as a result of our fine system of railway transportation. 
The railroads have made it possible to center the government 
at Washington, and organize the economic life at certain great 
loci of trade and commerce. Our great exports have devel- 
oped out of our surplus agricultural production. We are great 
because we are great agriculturally, and we could not be great 
agriculturally without an outlet to the markets of the world. 

The chief economic problems of the farmer, from the start, 


136 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


have been marketing problems. Our earlier marketing prob- 
lems were those of physical transportation; our present mar- 
keting problems are chiefly those of market finance. Because 
of this latter-day emphasis, we sometimes overlook the vital 
character of the earlier development, and its far-reaching effect 
upon American agriculture. If the dawn of our agricultural 
millennium is to come through the present great push forward 
in marketing development, we should at least not overlook 
the renaissance, due to the development of the physical means 
of transportation. Indeed, such physical elements of the mar- 
keting problem as hauling, routing, refrigeration, ete. are still 
vitally fundamental problems. Of far greater significance 
than the addition of a few eents to the city price of the farm- 
grown products is the marvel that products produced in such 
scattered isolation can be so readily had in the centers of pop- 
ulation of the world, and that vegetables and fruits grown in 
California and Florida can by modern means of transportation 
be placed thousands of miles away on the table of the con- 
sumer while they are still fresh. 

The Interurban and Rural Electric Line-—The coming of 
the automobile followed so closely upon the heels of the de- 
velopment of the rural electrical transportation systems that 
we have failed to grasp the significance of the electric service 
to rural communities. Because neither the United States cen- 
sus nor electrical traction companies classify their rural and 
urban electrical mileage separately, it is impossible to ascer- 
tain what the direct service to the people of the rural districts 
is. The prime function of many electrical rail lines is to offer 
rapid transit from one town to another. Others are not inter- 
urban at all, but find their terminals in the rural districts 
themselves. Certain sections of New England are a regular 
network of electric railway lines. The houses sometimes are 
ranged for miles along the car tracks. Vegetables, fruits, and 
produce are daily marketed by way of these lines. Shopping 
in the village is regularly done by using these systems. Regu- 
lar milk ears operate at certain times of the day. Express, 
parcel post, and mail are delivered by electric line. People go 
to church in them. In fact these cars are used for practically 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 137 


every conceivable transportation function which rural com- 
munities need. The development in New England is just a 
suggestion of what we might have expected in other sections 
had it not been for the advent of the automobile. 

It is impossible for anyone who was not living in the rural 
community where there was no thought or knowledge of auto- 
mobiles, but where the community had the possibility of get- 
ting an electric line, to realize the vision which such a possi- 
bility encouraged. The author even now—twenty-five years 
from such a situation—at times dreams at night of riding 
from the old farm to the nearby village on one of these won- 
derfully rapid and accommodating electric lines. The im- 
pressions laid by such anticipation may now be mere stuff 
for reflective dreams. They might have been prophecies of 
realities had it not been for the coming of the automobile. 

Country Roads.—The public roads are our greatest and 
most indispensable lines of transportation and communica- 
tion. In addition to being the very framework of rural or- 
ganization in every rural community they have a profound 
national significance. In ancient times, the extent of an em- 
pire was limited by the farthest reach of its government roads. 
Today road building may not be projected with an aim to ex- 
tending the frontiers of empires, but road building is still 
essential to the internal economic and social development of 
all nations. 

The highways of the nation should be woven into a national 
transportation system. They should correlate with our rail- 
roads, waterways, and electric lines in such a way as to estab- 
lish the very fabric of our social organization. We have ap- 
proximately 2,500,000 miles of wagon roads. We have about 
one-tenth that amount of railroad mileage. Probably 25 per 
cent of all traffic carried by the railroads also passes over the 
wagon roads of the country. The percentage of freight from 
country roads which fails to reach the railroads is probably 
greater than the amount of railroad freight. The passenger 
traffic on country roads is many times as great as that which 
passes over the railroads. 

The United States Department of Agriculture estimated 


138 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


that in 1912 it cost $72,948,000 to move our twelve principal 
agricultural crops from the country points to their respective 
shipping points. The railroad freight traffic from country 
shipping points is bound to vary in direct ratio to bad road 
conditions in that district. This variation reaches the point 
of a 50 per cent slump at country stations during the period of 
bad roads. Such facts are significant to the total consuming 
publie which depends upon these raw produets from the farms. 
They are significant to the railroads, and they are significant 
to the farmer. Every one is cognizant of the fact that in- 
creased freight rates mean increased cost of consumable goods, 
due to two things: first, the actual freight cost and, second, 
the transportation costs which keep a great amount of prod- 
ucts from being moved to market at all. Unhappily, we have 
been slow in recognizing that these factors operate just as 
directly in relation to country roads as they do to railroads 
or city deliveries. 

It was estimated in 1906 that the cost per ton mile on coun- 
try roads in the United States is 22.7 cents. This rises to 60 
cents per ton mile on a dry-sand road and drops to 8 cents 
on a broken-rock road. The average country haul at that 
time was found to be 9.4 miles. This constituted an average 
cost of $2.13 per ton for delivery of country products to ship- 
ping points. If the nation has felt that 1: is good business 
economy to assure its people an efficient railway freight and 
passenger service, how much more should it concern itself 
with the country road transportation problem. The hard sur- 
facing of our country roads would probably save us annually 
$55,000,000 to $75,000,000, and the reduction of grades on 
country roads would probably save twice that amount.’ 

Slowly, but surely, we have recognized the national signifi- 
cance of these facts. The first federal appropriation of $10,000 
was made by the Congress of the United States in 1895 to 
enable the Department of Agriculture to investigate the con- 
ditions of roads throughout the country. Today, the nation 
is spending $100,000,000 in assistance to states and counties 


*Farmers’ Bulletin No. 505, United States Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. © 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 139 


for road building and road administration work. State and 
local governments are probably expending twenty times that 
amount. The hard-surfaced roads of the United States are 
more than enough to encircle the globe. The public road, 
always more generally used than any other line of transporta- 
tion and communication, has at last gained economic and 
social status throughout the nation. The results of the next 
few years are beyond prophecy. 

Of more immediate significance to our present study is the 
influence of road improvement on the people who live on the 
farms. In an attempt to make this fact apparent we shall 
enumerate the chief benefits of such improvement: 

1. The existence of good roads increases land values. A 
government survey of typical counties in the states of Vir- 
ginia, New York, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida showed 
an increase in actual selling value of farm lands adjacent to 
improved roads to have varied from 25 to 194 per cent in the 
different counties surveyed. This was said to be an average 
of $9 per acre. The value per acre would probably be much 
greater on higher-priced lands. Lands of equal productive 
capacity and equal improvement are always appraised in 
values varying in direct ratio to their proximity to centers of 
population. The building of a hard-surfaced road reduces the 
time and energy expended in traveling or hauling to and from 
the population center, which is generally a shipping point. 
The reduction of that time and energy is synonymous to mov- 
ing the farm that much closer to town. 

2. Good roads decrease the transportation expense to and 
from the farm. We have already noted the fact that the cost 
for transportation over a sand road is reduced 52 cents per 
ton-mile in the ease of a broken-rock road. This means that 
it will cost a farmer no more to haul a ton 5.7 miles over a 
broken-rock road than it will to haul the same load two miles 
over a common dirt road or that he can haul almost three 
times as great a load over the former road as he can over the 
latter. Road tests over road surfaces of various kinds give 
the following figures for a one-horse load; 


140 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


TaBue 7.—Roap TrEsts ovER RodAp SurFAces OF Various Kinps? 


Kind of Road Number of 
Pounds 
Muddy ‘earth ‘road ae aek oe esac ne ee tr ae Oto 800 
Smooth dry, arth tosday peeaee  te ee eee enue ee 1,000 to 2,000 
Gravel road: (badiGonditiiniina. tts cay Ce 6 acters & ees eee 1,000 to 1,500 
Gravel TOSW (SG0C GOndIclOn) 2200. ye seek ye gerne ee eens 1,000 to 3,300 
Mscadam TOA sae CRe eer it crcle lake nis ceecune eh ccoie ter pee MO Cnt 2,000 to 5,000 
Brick Toad ForePa Paes ELL CP ed SOULS TE Vane i eunarne t 5,000 to 8,000 


This table shows that if the speed of travel is the same on 
the two roads, a horse can haul from two and a half to six 
times as much in a day over a macadam as over a moderately 
muddy road. Furthermore, if the roads are excessively 
muddy, hauling is altogether impossible while the condition 
of a hard-surfaced road is comparatively constant. 

No studies have been made to ascertain what portion of the 
horse labor in rural districts is used for road hauling. We 
_ have approximately $2,000,000,000 worth of mules and horses 
on American farms. If we assume that one-half of these 
animals are used as work animals, and we could increase their 
efficiency by furnishing better roads over which to haul to and 
from the farm, we would thereby add $1,000,000 to their 
value as traction forces. 

3. Good roads make it possible to market products at the 
most advantageous time in the year, and any day in the year. 
With good roads farmers can market their products in such 
a way and at such a time as to take advantage of market con- 
ditions and plan their market work in relation to their other 
farm work. 

4. Good roads improve rural delivery service. Mail can be 
brought to the rural homes much more promptly by means of 
the automobile than by the horse-drawn vehicle. Mail routes 
can be lengthened, and thus more people served in the same 
length of time. In some sections of the country, the mer- 
chants have developed rural delivery wagons which serve to 
gather country produce and deliver groceries. These de- 

Ibid. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 141 


liveries can be stabilized and made more universal if road 
surfaces of the right kind are provided. 

5. Good roads increase the facilities for assemblage of rural 
people. Farm organizations, clubs, parties and dances, insti- 
tutes, religious, social, and recreational activities are all made 
surer of success and more often attempted if the roads are the 
kind that can be depended upon. There is probably nothing 
which so handicaps community assembly programs, makes at- 
tendance upon them more precarious, and often forbids them 
at the very time of year when farmers have most leisure time 
than do bad country roads. 

6. Good roads improve school systems. Surveys of com- 
parative communities in Alabama, New York, and Michigan 
show that school attendance is increased 15 per cent because 
of good roads. Transportation of children to and from schools, 
probably the greatest stumbling block to consolidation, is made 
easy over good roads. If we compare the average rural school 
attendance of the ten states with the greatest percentage of 
improved highways, with the ten with the lowest percentage 
of improved road mileage, we find that the attendance is 
almost exactly 5 per cent higher in the states with the im- 
proved roads. 

7. Good roads make the automobile and the truck available 
and profitable vehicles on the farm. If the automobile can be 
used for the regular road business which is demanded, and if 
the truck can be made usable at all times of the year by means 
of hard-surfaced roads, these vehicles become not luxuries but 
necessities on the farm. They operate in just as economic a 
way as do the horses which they replace in these road trips. 

8. Good roads bring prompt medical and veterinary assist- 
ance to the home and the farm. Practically all the doctors, 
veterinarians, and medical aids are located in the cities. The 
good road, in conjunction with the telephone, brings medical 
assistance to the rural home in from one-fourth to one-eighth 
the time it could be had when the farmer had to hitch up and 
drive a slow farm team to town over a possibly muddy road, 
and the doctor had to repeat the process to get to the bedside 
of the one who was suffering. The difference between thirty 


142 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


minutes and two to four hours, in the case of critical illness, 
is of great concern. Furthermore, the medical aid is much 
more likely to be called in the case of both family and animal 
ailment if these ready means of transportation and communi- 
cation are available. 

9. Good roads increase the visitation of farm families. The 
almost complete isolation of the farm family during the winter 
and other bad road seasons is eliminated by the presence of 
good roads. They can keep up their contacts not only with 
their neighbors but with the outside world. Since such con- 
tacts become matters of habit, the result of keeping them 
active throughout the year is of double significance. 

10. Good roads enlarge the neighborhood. ‘The automobile 
is about four times as fast as the horse-driven vehicle. A 
sixteen-mile trip is, in fact, easier made over a hard-surfaced 
road in an automobile than a four-mile trip is with a horse- 
driven vehicle over an earth road. This means, so far as time 
and possibility are concerned, that the neighborhood is en- 
larged four times its previous size. That is, the area served by 
a center which radiates four times as far in all directions is an 
area four times as great as one that radiates only four miles in 
every direction. Old habits and neighborhood functions, 
other than visiting, will probably forever keep such a drastic 
expansion of every-day social contacts from taking place as is 
indicated by the statement above. It is impossible, however, 
that a system of transportation and communication with such 
physical capacity shall not enlarge many of the market, school, 
church, club, and other social contacts as time goes on. 

11. Immediate and constant contact with the outside world 
is of deepest significance. The rural mail delivery which 
brings the newspapers of the world and letters from other 
communities, the habitual contacts with neighbors and towns- 
people, the increased efficiency of community and neighbor- 
hood assemblies, the rural church and Sunday school, with 
all-year programs, the better school attendance and encourage- 
ment of consolidated schools, all serve to raise the tone of 
rural life in an immeasurable degree. The farmer’s children 
are educated; his class socialized; his neighborhood, state, and 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 143 


nation feel his influence as a citizen; and slowly, but surely, 
must all society be benefited by his participation in its cos- 
mopolitan life. The arteries of transportation and communi- 
cation are the key to his development. 


RURAL COMMUNICATION 


The Rural Free Delivery—The Rural Free Delivery of 
mails is one of the most helpful agencies ever introduced into 
the life of the nation. Its expansion has been very great and 
its influence immeasurable. The Congressional appropriation 
of $40,000, which made possible the establishing of three ex- 
perimental routes in West Virginia, was made on June 9, 1896. 
In 1920 the appropriation was $68,000,000, the number of 
routes was 43,445, the total mileage was 1,151,832, the total 
patrons 29,891,159, and the pieces of mail handled 3,915,888,- 
854. The following table presents the development in five- 
year periods. Some portions of the table are not complete 
due to the fact that the data have never been compiled: 


TABLE 8.—DEVELOPMENT OF RuRAL FREE DELIVERY IN UNITED Statss! 











: . Number of Pieces of 
Fiscal Year Route Mileage pate Mui @asried 
WSUS ous 82 | Not available Not available Not available 
DOO Zs he 8,298 | Not available Not available Not available 
LOT Ore metre 41,097 993,068 Not available | 2,723,262,000 
TOL HR ee Nee 43,866 1,076,235 ZO S400 700 6 3,657, 530,038 
POD ei he ety 3 43,445 Pb i832 29,891,159 3,915,888, 854 


The incompleteness of the table makes it impossible to draw 
statistical conclusions concerning the expansion and influence 
of the rural mail service. Over three-fifths of the road mile- 
age of the nation is now covered by rural routes. The actual 
number of patrons is also three-fifths or more of all the per- 
sons who live in the open country. During the last twelve 
years, the pieces of mail handled have increased 1,192,626,854. 


‘Information furnished by Fourth Assistant Post Master General of the 
United States. 


144 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


The first twelve years doubtless represented an equal expan- 
sion, for the now quite universal daily newspaper was prac- 
tically unknown and impractical in the country districts before 
the coming of the rural mail delivery service. Probably the 
outstanding social and economic results of the coming of the 
Rural Free Delivery are: 

1. It made possible an immediate and constant knowledge 
of world events. The coming of the daily newspaper is the 
chief vehicle of such knowledge. A deep appreciation of its 
significance can be had by comparing the difference in the atti- 
tude, interest, and efficiency during the recent World War to 
what it would have been had our rural districts been robbed 
of the constant knowledge of what was taking place. 

2. It furnished, before the day of the telephone and radio, 
daily weather and market reports. The universality of the 
daily paper and the introduction of the telephone have served 
to eliminate the distribution of weather reports by rural car- 
rier. If the farmer does not use the daily reports of the mar- 
kets as his direct cue for determining when to sell, it is be- 
cause telephones and automobiles have made that unneces- 
sary. He has, however, become a student of the market to a 
very great extent. The results of his market interest, and 
especially his market knowledge, are sure to bear fruits. 

3. Ease of communication by mail serves to retain many 
human bonds which would otherwise be lost. It is impossible 
to know what percentage of the increase in pieces of mail 
handled is personal correspondence. Friends and relatives 
who are separated find it much easier to retain and keep alive 
their social bonds when correspondence facilities are good than 
when they are poor. 

4. It furnishes parcel post facilities. The rural mail sery- 
ice furnishes a merchandising agency to the farmer. He can, 
if he desires, have numerous small articles delivered from 
town to his mail box. He can readily purchase from mail- 
order houses. He can market eggs and fruit. He can, by 
using the telephone, have medicine and drugs delivered by 
way of the mail. Some interesting marketing has been done 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 145 


through the Rural Free Delivery. Eggs, butter, fruit, and 
other small farm articles are delivered to nearby towns. Fruit 
is often delivered long distances. Farmers buy from mail- 
order houses, from local merchants, and from other farmers, 
and have the goods and products delivered by mail. This 
form of the service has probably just begun its development. 
The day when the hard-surfaced road is universal will prob- 
ably see light trucks operating a daily and stupendous parcel 
post service to and from the rural districts. 

5. The Rural Free Delivery has been an agency for road 
improvement. Road conditions have been made an essential 
to the establishing of the rural mail service in any community. 
Undoubtedly the government has been extremely lenient in 
enforcing its regulations concerning passable roads. The 
initial influence, however, is always made known, and the rural 
mail carrier serves as a constant advocate of road improve- 
ment. There is no question but that the Rural Free De- 
livery routes do operate on the better roads and that the com- 
munity or neighborhood or farmers which refuse to assist in 
the good road programs are those least accommodated by the 
service. 

6. Rural Free Delivery increases land values. Statistics are 
not available to prove this assertion but the influence of good 
roads on land values has previously been mentioned, and we 
have noted the influence of the Rural Free Delivery on good 
roads. There is little doubt but that the rural free delivery 
service is an influence helping to determine the desirability 
of a farm location, and there is no doubt about the location of 
the farm having an influence on its value. 

The Rural Telephone.—The development of the rural tele- 
phone service has been almost as phenomenal as that of the 
Rural Free Delivery. Just when the first rural telephone line 
was introduced into the rural districts, it is not possible to 
say. To say that the whole service is a development of the 
last twenty-five years is substantially a correct statement. 
The following table presents the facts concerning the develop- 
ment of service since ana including 1907: 


146 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


TABLE 9.—RuRAL TELEPHONES IN THE UNITED States! 





Year Rural Stations 
190 TRS IN a Neca 1,462,800 
1912 ae RA Ue Ee erate Fa 2,279,800 
LOTT ee Teena eee 2,787,500 
LOZO eRe Te ee ie ane water ek 3,156,900 


This table presents the information for the total number of 
telephones in the rural homes of the United States. The 
census reports about 500,000 less than this, (2,498,035). 
The census report is for number of homes having telephones. 
The table gives total telephones, including homes that have 
more than one telephone, of which there are many. The fol- 
lowing is a quotation from a letter from the chief statistician 
of the American Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, and 
refers to the table given: 

We determine rural telephone stations on a rate classification 
basis which enables us to state as “rural” those stations (phones) 
located in segregated houses served by so-called “farmer lines.” 


The table shows the number of such Bell Connections and Inde- 
pendent rural stations in the United States as of October 1, of each 
year. Our table should be increased by approximately 42 per cent 
if stations (phones) located in all places of less than 2,500 in- 
habitants were to be counted as “rural stations.” 


The census report shows 38.9 per cent of all farms having 
telephones. This runs as high as 86.1 per cent in Iowa and 
as low as 5.7 per cent in South Carolina. There were almost 
1,500,000 telephones located in rural homes prior to 1907. 
In a well-settled and prosperous farming community, the tele- 
phone is a universal convenience. Its chief benefits are: 

1. It places farmers in contact with each other in matters 
of business, protection, social organization, and visitation. 
By means of the telephone the farmer can get in almost con- 
stant contact with all his neighbors. The “line call” brings 
a representative of every farm home to the telephone. In 


"Information furnished by American Bell Telephone and Telegraph 
Company. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 147 


times of accident or fire or the announcement of something 
which is of concern to the whole neighborhood, all can be noti- 
fied at one time. The weather report is often given by 
“central” who first rings the “line call.” The calling of neigh- 
bors to assist in some harvesting or threshing or marketing 
function is easy and no time is lost because of a miscalcula- 
tion. Social and recreational affairs are made surer and no 
one need be left in doubt about their postponement. All the 
social institutions—the school, church, lodge, grange, and 
other agencies—insure their programs by use of the telephone. 

2. It places the farmer in touch with professional men of 
the city. The doctor, the veterinarian, the druggist, the 
preacher, the editor, and the lawyer all live in the town or 
city. The farmer can reach them quickly by telephone. 

3. It places him in touch with the market. Today the 
farmer can sell his products over the telephone. He can make 
a quick adjustment to a fluctuating market because of knowl- 
edge he gains by means of the telephone. He can use the 
telephone in conjunction with the Rural Free Delivery as a 
marketing agency. He can even reach the central markets of 
the larger cities by long-distance telephone call. 

4, The rural telephone encourages rural cooperation. Many 
rural lines are owned and operated by farmers’ cooperative 
associations. Hiven where they are not owned by the com- 
munity, cooperation is necessary to get them established. The 
constant contacts over these lines stimulate neighborliness on 
a broader scale than was possible before their introduction. 
There is some possibility that neighborly visitation is not so 
frequent because of the substitution of telephone visiting. 
There are no facts to substantiate such a contention, however, 
whereas every one will agree that the telephone does keep 
neighbors in more constant contact with each other, if by no 
other means than “eavesdropping.” 

Radios.—The wireless telephone is the most recent inven- 
tion in communication. Its value to rural communities is in- 
calculable. It is so new and is developing so rapidly that any 
calculation of its prevalence in rural districts, even if available, 
would be out of date before the manuscript of this book could 


148 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


come from the press. At the Third National Radio Confer- 
ence, held in Chicago, Llinois, Secretary of Agriculture Wal- 
lace issued invitations to all agricultural colleges, state depart- 
ments of agriculture, state bureaus of markets, and farm or- 
ganizations to attend. Preceding the conference the following 
statements were made indicating the possible significance and 
problems in radio broadcasting to agriculture: 


1. The quantity, character, arrangement, and time allotment of 
such agricultural broadcasting material as weather forecasts, crop 
and market material, agricultural news, agricultural educational 
material, and entertainment. 

2. The development of a national program of agricultural mate- 
rial, taking into consideration all state and local needs, thereby 
offering the widest distribution of agricultural information. 

3. Through proper coordination to obtain the greatest economy 
and efficiency in handling agricultural material through broadcast- 
ing stations and to eliminate duplication of effort. 

4. The development of suitable time schedules for radio broad- 
casting materials to meet agricultural needs and the division of time 
schedules among broadcasting stations. 


A survey made by the United States Department of Agri- 
culture in 1924 showed an increase of farm radios from 1923 
to 1924 of from 145,000 to 370,000. In 1924 the Illinois Agri- 
cultural Association attempted to discover the number of farm 
radios in that state. It calculated that from 7 to 10 per cent 
of all farmers’ homes of the state were equipped with receiv- 
ing sets. In seventy-four counties there were 21,045 sets. 
One county in the vicinity of St. Louis had 2,550 sets in farm 
houses.’ 

The radio while not yet developed so that messages can be 
both received and transmitted and thus not as apt a means 
as some other types of communication, such as the telephone, 
will within the next few years be a part of the communication 
equipment of a million American farm homes. 

The benefits of the radio on the farm are: 

1. It furnishes weather and market reports daily. These 
are both of great importance to the farmer. 


*Farm publication of the Illinois Agricultural Association, Chicago, Illinois. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 149 


2. It furnishes the best musical talent of the world to the 
farm home. 

3. News of the world, of all kinds, can be received immedi- 
ately after or even during the transpiring of events. 

4. Aericultural extension education can be furnished dli- 
rectly from the agricultural college to the farm home, and 
all other types of education can be promoted in the same way. 
Colleges of agriculture and other educational institutions are 
already giving college courses for credit over the radio. 

5. It will relieve farm isolation in many subtle ways. While 
face-to-face contacts are not obtainable over the radio, the 
constant acquaintance with world events, and the conscious- 
ness that the farm family is being served by the best talent 
of the world has the effect of making farm people feel at home 
in world and social affairs. 

6. State and national farm organizations, such as the Farm 
Bureau and Grange can use the radio to keep their members 
informed about the organizations’ activities and programs, 
and, like the college of agriculture, can participate in the 
wider educational and entertainment programs for farm 
people. In one state there are over 200 grange halls. Each 
of these is a potential receiving station where the farm neigh- 
borhood can assemble for entertainment and instruction over 
the radio. 

7. When the transmission of photographs by wireless is per- 
fected, even moving pictures and other visual displays will 
be made universal by radio. 

Newspapers.—It is quite impossible to measure the influ- 
ence of the newspaper in rural life. No one knows just how 
many papers circulate in the rural districts nor can the subtle 
influence of such circulation be calculated. Daily papers 
have come into the rural sections by the millions since the 
inauguration of the Rural Free Delivery. Agricultural 
papers have increased their circulation tremendously in the 
last few years. A number of farm papers have circulation 
of nearly 1,000,000 per issue. County weeklies go to the rural 
homes by the millions. Magazines of all kinds are read 
widely. The following list presents a few conspicuous cases 


150 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


found in one rural community. This list of conspicuous cases 
could be multiplied hundreds, or even thousands, of times in 
the numerous rural communities of the nation. 


List or Conspicuous CASES TAKEN FROM A STUDY OF THE AMOUNT OF READING 
MATERIAL IN Farm Homess.! 


Owner: 1,000 books, 2 dailies, 2 weeklies, 2 farm, 3 religious, 4 magazines, 
receives Agricultural Bulletin. 

Owner: 1,001 books, 3 dailies, 2 weeklies, 3 farm, 1 religious, 3 magazines, 
receives Agriculiural Bulletin. 

Owner: 1,200 books, 5 dailies, 0 weeklies, 3 farm, 1 religious, 5 magazines, 
receives Agricultural Bulletin. 

Owner: 1,000 books, 2 dailies, 0 weeklies, 3 farm, 0 religious, 6 magazines, 
receives Agricultural Bulletin. 

Owner: 1,000 books, 5 dailies, 1 weekly, 3 farm, 0 religious, 10 magazines, 
receives Agricultural Bulletin. 

Tenant: 500 books, 2 dailies, 1 weekly, 3 farm, 0 religious, 1 magazine, no 
bulletins. 

Tenant: 500 books, 2 dailies, 4 weeklies, 3 farm, 2 religious, 1 magazine, receives 
Agricultural Bulletin. 

Tenant: 500 books, 1 daily, 2 weeklies, 1 farm, 1 religious, 1 magazine, no 
bulletins. 

Tenant: 250 books, 4 dailies, 4 weeklies, 4 farm, 1 religious, 5 magazines, receives 
Agricultural Bulletin. 

Tenant: 250 books, 2 dailies, 2 weeklies, 3 farm, 1 religious, 4 magazines, receives 
Agricultural Bulletin. 


The United States Department of Agriculture circulated 
13,000,000 agricultural bulletins during 1918. The colleges 
and state departments of agriculture probably circulated an 
equal number. All these publications are means of communi- 
cation. Some of them deal only with the technical phases of 
farming. Others, however, serve as communicating media be- 
tween the world events and the rural districts. Altogether 
their influence is immeasurable. 

Visitation, Community Gathering, and Trips te Town.— 
The assertion is often made that the old-fashioned country 
gathering and even the old-fashioned country visiting is a 
thing of the past. There is a good bit of evidence to give 
weight to such an assertion. Barn raisings, log rollings, husk- 
ing bees, and sewing bees are largely a thing of the past be- 
cause of the elimination of these processes themselves or be- 
cause of their having been taken over by factory methods, 


1From A Social Survey of the Columbia Trade Area, Boone County, Missouri, 
(unpublished). 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 151 


machines, or professional men. The number of community 
churches, consolidated schools, grange halls, and community 
buildings is increasing, however, and the result is a regaining 
of communal gatherings in the rural districts. A report of 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Ohio in 1916 
showed that community and neighborhood gatherings were 
eleven times as frequent the year after the establishing of the 
consolidated schools as they were the year before. 

Real family visiting is a phenomenon of the countryside 
alone. It is significant in terms of intellectual as well as social 
contacts and it is not to be overlooked. In a survey of 306 
farm families in Boone County, Missouri, it was found that 
there were five families who said they never visited their 
neighbors, and forty-two families who said they did not visit 
neighbors more than four times per year. On the other hand 
there were forty-three families who said they visited neighbors 
on the average of twice per week, and seventeen families who 
said they visited neighbors daily. There were almost exactly 
the same number who called as often as once per week as there 
were who called less frequently than that. In four different 
Missouri surveys, it was found that farmers averaged one trip 
to town per week. In the Ashland Community, Howard 
County, 40 per cent of the families said they had visited be- 
yond the limit of their own community, and six of them had 
taken trips of over 100 miles in length within a year’s time. 
In the Columbia Community, Boone County, Missouri, 90 per 
cent of the families said they regularly attended social gather- 
ings of the neighborhood, community, or county. 

Automobiles.—The automobile is today the chief agency of 
communication. Community gatherings of all kinds, frequent 
trips to town, and other visitation are practically all made by 
means of the automobile, and made more frequently than be- 
fore it came. It is now a normal condition on Saturday night 
at Iowa county seats to find 1,000 automobiles parked for 
blocks about, and near the town square. The county fair and 
the Chautauqua are seas of automobiles. The old-fashioned 
“hitching racks” are forbidden by city ordinance. The horse, 


152 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


for pleasure trips in prosperous rural sections, is practically 
a thing of the past. A rural church gathering with a ratio of 
20 automobiles to 1 horse-driven vehicle is a common sight in 
thousands of rural communities today. There are today 
20,000,000 automobiles in the United States. It is a mistake 
to assume that the farmers are not strongly represented among 
the automobile owners. 

The motor truck has come to be employed as the most prac- 
tical method of taking farm products to market in many com- 
munities. By means of its use, the farmer can deliver his 
products to the market in less time, which is of immense sig- 
nificance in fruit and vegetable marketing. It not only saves 
time but saves farm horses, which are not well suited to road 
work. It gives the farmer a choice between local markets, 
which was not possible when slower means of transportation 
had to be used. In asurvey of the experience of 831 corn-belt 
farmers, it was found that a little over one-fourth of them had 
changed their market centers. The owners of these trucks 
calculated that they used their trucks in field or road work 
112 days per year and traveled an average of 2,777 miles dur- 
ing the year. F. W. Fenn, secretary of the National Motor 
Truck Committee of the National Automobile Chamber of 
Commerce, stated in the Breeders’ Gazette in August, 1921, 
that during the previous year 6,000,000 cattle, hogs, and sheep 
were transported directly from the farm to such central mar- 
kets as St. Louis, Omaha, St. Joseph, and Chicago, without 
the use of railroads at all. This is vastly different from the 
day when hundreds of thousands of these farm animals were 
driven on foot, sometimes hundreds of miles from the Texas 
ranges, to central markets. 

The use of the automobile depends on good roads and is 
therefore conditioned by one of the other agencies of com- 
munication. It in turn conditions many of the other facts 
and agencies of communication in rural districts. Its influ- 
ence may be summarized as follows: 

1. It is the chief stimulus to road building and road im- 
provement. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL ISOLATION 153 


2. It ties the country and town together and makes of them 
one integral community. 

3. It makes possible business and social gatherings. 

4. It enlarges the community. In doing so it is incidentally 
slowly eliminating many of the smaller social and business 
centers of isolated sections. 

5. It makes all rural affairs more “up to date.” Entertain- 
ments no longer have to be stereotyped and simple because 
of talent being restricted to a small group. The audiences are 
assured because of the good roads and automobiles. The 
amount of energy required to attend such occasions is much 
less because of the ease and quickness of the automobile trip. 

6. The farmer has a different social status because of the 
automobile, although the presence of a few people in rural 
communities who cannot afford automobiles may serve to set 
up slight caste relationships within local neighborhoods. The 
fact that the farmer can own a powerful, beautiful, and high- 
priced automobile gives him and his family a standing in the 
eyes of town people which it was never his pleasure to hold 
until the coming of the automobile era. 

Isolation, the greatest handicap in farm life, is being dis- 
pelled at arapid rate. The inaccessibility of the average farm 
home to the remainder of the community and even the rest of 
the world is pretty much a thing of the past. There are out- 
of-way places yet to be reached by modern means of trans- 
portation and communication, but these will be more quickly 
penetrated than a few years ago any one imagined. The 
general effect of these increased contacts will do more to help 
solve all rural social and economic problems than any other 
thing that is happening in rural life. For education is a mat- 
ter of contacts, and education or learning will make farmers 
cognizant of problems, and next teach them the solution. 

A discussion of the psychological influence of isolation and 
increased contact will be presented in Chap. XXI. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1201, United States Department of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 


154 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


“Radio: From two points of view,” Monthly Bulletin, Missouri State Board of 
Agriculture, Jefferson City, Missouri, October, 1924. 

“Motor Transportations for Rural Districts, United States Department of 
Agriculture,” Bulleteon No. 770, Washington, D. C. 

Guette, J. M., Rural Sociology, Chap. XVI, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1922. 

PHELAN, J., Readings in Rural Sociology, Chap. X, The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York, 1920. 


CHAPTER VIII 
THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP 
THE PREVALENCE OF FARM TENANCY IN THE UNITED STATES 


The Significance of Tenancy in Rural Life-—The question 
of who owns our American farms is, of course, a part of the 
general land problem. It is also a problem in agricultural 
economics and in national economy. But a more important 
aspect of the tenancy and ownership problem than either of 
these is its sociological aspect. It is conceivable that scientific 
production and farm management might gain more under 
capitalistic or corporation farming than under a system of 
small individual holdings. It is conceivable that the ratio of 
“out put” to “in go’ might be much better per acre of land 
unit, labor unit, or capital unit under a system of great capital 
holdings. It is quite inconceivable that the American farmer 
would be as good a citizen, especially as efficient a citizen; 
that he would take as great pride in, and get as much pleasure 
out of his home; that he would develop as good a community 
for himself and his neighbors, or a civilization such as we de- 
sire in our democratic form of society, as he could and would 
if he owned the house in which he lives and the land which he 
farms. It is the problem of life on the farm, the development 
of rural communities and the building of rural civilization that 
we are, after all, most concerned with. 

The problem of farm tenancy is of the same species in 
many respects as the wage problem and the slum problem in 
the cities. It has attached to it all the fallacies that go with 
ideas about the unfortunate classes everywhere. It is passed 
over by many with the easy comment that “some people are 
simply that calibre and nothing else can be expected of them,” 
and by others with the comment that wise and economic farm- 
ing demands, on our farms, a proportion of operators in the 
tenant stage serving a sort of apprenticeship. Even a greater 

155 


156 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


number of persons do not even know of the prevalence of farm 
tenancy, or are easily satisfied with the knowledge that a 
larger proportion of rural families own their homes than is the 
case with city dwellers. To those who are sincerely and intel- 
ligently concerned about American rural civilization, none of 
these attitude are satisfactory. Such persons are concerned 
with the type of homes, social institutions, and communities 
that exist in rural life. They are convinced that any system 
of farm tenure which tends to breed rural slums, and handi- 
cap human beings who are born and reared on the farm is 
unsatisfactory and is, therefore, a matter of national concern 
and a problem for rural statesmanship. That tenancy does 
handicap rural community life and individual life on the farm, 
and that it would be better if home ownership were universal, 
few, 1f any, students of rural social life will deny. In the face 
of this conviction, however, the proportion of landless farmers 
is Increasing with every year of our national life. 

The Increase in Farm Tenancy in the United States.— 
Society discovered from the census of 1880 that slightly over 
one-fourth (25.6 per cent) of our farms were operated by men 
who did not own them. Since that time tenancy has in- 
creased, though at a varying rate, from decade to decade. By 
1890, it included 28.4 per cent of all farm operators. Between 
1890 and 1900, it jumped to 35.8 per cent. In the next decade 
it increased to 37.0 per cent. In 1920, it went to 38.1 per cent, 
and in 1925 it included 38.6 per cent of all farms operated in 
the United States. 

In 1925, there were 2,462,528 farm tenants in the United 
States. If we will keep in mind the influence of tenancy upon 
the farm family’s standard of living, which was depicted in 
Chap. VI, and if we will keep in mind the great mass of farm 
families who do not own their homes, when we discuss the 
sociological consequences of tenancy, in this chapter, we will 
begin to recognize the significance of tenant farming in its 
social aspects. 

It would appear that the rate of tenancy increase is rapidly 
slowing down because the percentage increase in each of the 
last two decades has been only about one-half of the per- 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP = 157 


centage increase for the decade between 1890 and 1900. Dr. 
L. C. Stewart warns against any such false interpretation of 
the facts. It is true that the increase, from decade to decade, 
in the number of tenant farms, since 1900, has not been as 
great as in the two decades just preceding 1900. Measured, 
however, on the basis of acreage and value of farm lands and 
value of buildings, under the guidance and direction of land- 
less farmers, the situation looks different. The number of 
rented acres per thousand and the number of dollars’ worth 
of rented land per thousand were not only higher than that 
shown on the basis of farm units, but have been growing at 
much faster rates during both of the decades since 1900, 
especially in the decade between 1910 and 1920, than they 
did during the decade just before 1900. The proportion of 
rented farms increased less than 3 per cent between 1910 and 
1920, but the proportion of leased property values and leased 
acreage increased 11 per cent. On this basis lessees, in 1920, 
operated 44 per cent of the improved acreage and 46 per cent 
of the value of land alone in the United States. Over one- 
half of the acreage of all farm land was leased in two states— 
Delaware and Illinois—both in 1910 and 1920. If improved 
land alone is considered, ten more states must be added to 
the list of states having over one-half of their active land 
farmed by tenants—Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Missis- 
sippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and 
Washington. Dr. Stewart concludes his report with the state- 
ment that “the tide of tenancy is shown by the latest census 
(1920) to have continued its upward flow with little or no 
abatement.” The following abridged table is taken from his 
report:? 

It is apparent from the facts presented in this table, that 
any economic and social problems that arise out of a system 
of tenant farming, are sure to develop to greater magnitude 
with the continued increase in the number of persons who are 
becoming farm tenants and the greater proportion of farm 
enterprise that is coming under their direction. 


1 $rewart, L. C., M imeographed Report from the Division of Land Economics, 
Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agriculture 
1922. 


158 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


TABLE 10.—PERCENTAGE OF INCREASE IN LESSEE FARMING IN THE UNITED 
States, 1900-1920 


Valuation 
Geographic Division 
Farms Land Buildings Total 


—.. $$ | | | —————__—- 


United States ve sae 7.9 23.2 20.5 29.2 
New diingiand ian ur ee a 1.4 io. 13.2 

Middle /Atlantigsiiaie ie 15.9 13.8 15.4 Die 
East North: Contrali cae ne 12 24.8 17.4 LI 
West North Central........... 15.6 31.0 34.7 13.5 
SouthvAtianticnrey eee ees io 16.7 16.3 .6 
East South Centralicvee or. can 3.2 10.9 21.0 8.7 
West South Central........... rE 34.3 14.6 4.1 
MountaAInNe eee ee eek ee 2533 36.6 Dole 15.6 
Pacific pis Siam air, be 1.8 (22 ae 2 


From the social point of view the number of persons in- 
volved in tenancy is more important than the number of 
acres or the amount of farm property under their control. 
The percentage of the latter has not increased greatly since 
1880. This slowing down in the relative loss of farm owners 
and relatively less increase in farm tenants does not obviate 
the fact that millions of men, women, and children are living 
under conditions which prevail in tenant communities, which 
conditions place them on a lower standard of living than that 
of farm-owner families and on a lower plane of living than is 
desired if we expect to build an adequate and satisfactory 
rural civilization in America. Furthermore, the absolute 
number of tenant families in the United States has increased 
from 1,024,601 in 1880 to 2,454,804 in 1920. 


THE CAUSE OF FARM TENANCY 


Tenancy Is a Natural Step in Acquiring Farm Ownership. 
—The most fundamental cause of increase of tenancy in the 
United States is to be found in the fact that tenancy, which is 
often a stepping stone to ownership, has gradually played a 
greater and greater role in the acquirement of land in the 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP = 159 


United States. The passage from non-ownership to owner- 
ship by way of a protracted period of tenant farming is be- 
coming ever more necessary. With the public domain prac- 
tically exhausted, with inheritance playing the small part in 
land holdings that it does in the United States, and with no 
adequate credit facilities for land purchase, the beginning 
farmer has generally left but one means of attaining owner- 
ship, namely, to climb the “agricultural ladder,’ one rung of 
which is tenancy. Landed estates have never been a big factor 
in American farming, though they are becoming more prev- 
alent. Inheritance and gifts as means of attaining owner- 
ship, therefore, have always been minor factors in land acquire- 
ment in this country. The period of homesteading has prac- 
tically passed. We have reached the limits of our agricultural 
frontiers and have practically no more “free lands.” A man 
who now avails himself of the homesteading privilege is gen- 
erally compelled to expend considerable sums of money on 
irrigation or drainage in order to make his land productive. 
Beginning farmers, therefore, quite universally start as 
tenants. 

The Increase in Land Values.—It was scarcely twenty years 
ago that good land in Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Okla- 
homa, and Texas could be bought from the savings which a 
tenant, or even a hired man, could accumulate in a few years. 
In 1900, the average value of the farms in the South Atlantic 
States was only $1,511, and in the East South Central only 
$1,324. Today it requires three times that much capital to 
purchase a farm in these areas. In North Carolina, Georgia, 
Mississippi, and Arkansas it has multiplied four times and in 
Florida and Texas five times. In Iowa today it requires al- 
most $40,000 to buy and equip a farm. It was not so difficult 
during the earlier periods of our national history to make 
the ascent to ownership, with the result that it was very 
rapid. The beginning farmer remained a tenant but a short 
time and comparatively few failed rapidly to acquire owner- 
ship. Today thousands find the ascent very difficult. The 
result is that an ever increasing number get stalled in the 


160 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


tenant stage and remain there through life. The men of this 
generation who are thus stalled pass on no inheritance of land 
ownership to their children. The result is that what was once 
a stream of beginning farmers steadily moving into home 
ownership is now pretty much a group of congenital tenants. 

The following table shows the increase in the amount of 
capital required in 1920 over what was necessary in 1850 to 
own and equip a farm unit in the various geographic areas 
in the United States: 


Tasie 11.—AvEeRAGE VALUE oF Farm PROPERTY, OR THE AMOUNT OF CAPITAL 
REQUIRED TO PuRcHASE AND Equip A Farm! 


Value of Farm Units 
Geographic Divisions 
1920 1900 1870 1850 


ONTte Sia tea) emai uur wen enue y Ma eay $12,084 |$8,563 |$3,363 /$2,596 
UNG Wy UEGTIO LAT Cane siren aah tis leatabius Balin ye he 7,492 3,000 3,135 2,596 
IVETACH OVA TIAN TIC Hua, Ue th, weak eee ne 9,290 4,759 beGoOn 3,880 
Teast MNOTUN CC GTIELAL sete oe ie ute Leet te oe 15,898 5,004 4,057 2,189 
Weston orth Wentralee caine c nae Caer PASE y al YY 5,488 2,802 1,568 
OO UIGEL GA GLALTE EL eye enrsaoge ech uy Gite niet Mc 5,292 1,511 1,980 2,845 
Hast SOU CETIETEL ese ws ie) senna anne 4,203 1,324 1,897 2211 
West SOU bh Gi Urae heii vere uienumiiiy Laiauens (4002 2,146 1,449 3,485 
Mountain ee) Nee WI SOA ei 16,727 5,934 1,421 892 
PACH RA SUIT AM Ee) Ch ULC sa eee 22,664 7,864 6,428 6,010 





This table is of particular significance because it shows the 
total average value of farm units and, of course, it is the 
farm as a unit which the tenant must purchase. In Oklahoma, 
the land values increased two and one-half times, while ten- 
ancy increased 8.9 per cent. In Georgia the land values 
doubled and tenancy increased 5.8 per cent. In Nebraska the 
land values increased three and one-half times and tenancy 
increased 5.3 per cent. The increase for the nation during 
this decade was only 1.7 per cent. 

There are 288 counties in the twelve chief cotton-producing 
states whose land values in 1920 exceeded the average for 
their respective states by as much as 25 per cent. In every 


Includes land, buildings, implements, machinery, and livestock. Four- 
teenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. V, p. 56. 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP 161 


TABLE 12.—RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCREASING LAND VALUES AND 
INCREASING TENANCY! 


Percentage 
Average Value of Farms 
Per Farm Operated by 
Typical State in Each Division Tenants 


1910 1900 1910 | 1900 


————— | | 


New England 


PELL Gar ee ae ras castiak Mean iets bled ate a $ 1,785 |$1,384 1273 101425 

IVESRSACHUSELISHIAS chide laut sila cle terdoa% 2,859 | 2,305 SUL 9.6 
Middle Atlantic 

TNO WP ULE ced eee icete nN ehene ey tee ie |S. SA, Pere! BBE 19.8 | 23.9 

HOUNSVIVERUAU. sraate hiss salty. cheenieete oes s 2,875 | 2,566 | 238.3 | 26.0 
East North Central 

(EERSTE Ass PORE TS Pacuc eee he ee Daeg Pay re ee eae UDA ALA VA ray A1,5:1°39.3 

NMA SCOTICU MER rete th EON ee eke be ea aw Del4e7 Woy tos Ve a 
West North Central 

BO Weare ied ac SRA chghlcss s KR RTO a Seah ees 12,910 | 5,497 31:97\284.9 

DS POST PCT EE oo AL ol ER Sa Rat AL cs Ae MT Oe 12,450 | 4,004 Soe Woe 23 
South Atlantic 

PUG IPR R ECS LIES, hye miter ented eta ava tic oe ey Dyo20 642 | 63.1 | 61.1 

ROTC LA REED ay PR ar sie aire Kleen ahamati ce at L274 616 65.6 | 59.8 
East South Central 

PESTIUCSSEO MRT ne Gere SU BS ec a tee eo ales oO 889 41.1 | 40.6 

BLISSIEGLD [ile fiche PREG os Chale oho t tals ols Mae 926 520 | 66.2 | 62.4 
West South Central 

COIS EV eUay ahh oh CR Cos Me Di RN AR Ge Oa 3,414 | 1,838 54.7 | 43.8 

SUCX AS em re eee ee a MWe ahe cig Seth ait 3,909 | 1,680 52.6.) 49.7 
Mountain 

ATTIRE TT (iby SRN BS ROR tad en OB, OP REM ea rt 7,858 | 3,658 (Ra ie22.6 

IGOR EME. Wakes ay, Vie tte ats hikgiesele es 4,590 | 2,080 7.9 8.8 
Pacific 

Py ALT COL imc tnt fa voto ir sicnekeeae cae 9,208 | 2,991 losis 

CEGUL GENIAL met eens Rs cy a ee Chee a as le aS 14,9385 | 8,691 20:6 Zout 








1BizzELL, W. B., Farm Tenancy in the United States, p. 157; Adapted from 
Table 31, pp. 22 and 82; 122-127 of Census, Vol. V, Bulletin No. 278, Texas 
Agricultural Experiment Station, A & M College, College Station, Texas. 


162 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


case the tenancy rate exceeded the state average, varying 
from 1 to 31 per cent excess. The same tendency is apparent 
in every state in the United States. 

It was the discovery of the relationship between prosperous 
farming sections and increasing tenancy which began to give 
many students of the situation much concern a few years ago. 
Nor is that concern to be belittled. This is only an attempt 
to explain the basis of it. A corollary with the fact, and re- 
sulting from the same cause to a degree, is the loss of rural 
population, partly due to the moving of young farmers to 
areas of lower land values in order that they may escape a 
long stage of tenant farming. This, of course, adds a farm 
owner in the low-value area and sometimes leaves a tenant in 
the high-value area. Such a move on the part of the young 
farmer is justified when it takes, on the average, from six 
to eight years longer to accumulate enough capital to make 
the first payment necessary to ownership now than it did 
twenty years ago. The farmers of Iowa made their first pay- 
ment toward farm ownership in 1890 at the average age of 
twenty-eight. They made this first payment in 1915 at thirty- 
four years of age.’ This is just another way of saying that 
young farm owners of 1915 had been tenants or hired men, 
on the average, six years longer than they had in 1890. This 
slowing up of the great army of young farmers in its march 
toward ownership is directly due to high land values. It 
necessarily concentrates a greater number of them at the point 
of tenant operation and thus increases the percentage of ten- 
ant operated farms. This fact is questioned by some students 
of the so-called “agricultural ladder,” * but every survey which 
has been made of farmers who attained their ownership of 
land by other methods than inheritance, gifts, or marriage, 
bears out the fact that men who work their way into land 
ownership are arriving at proprietorship at a later stage in 
life. 

The following table of typical states from the various geo- 


*Luoyp, O. G., “Farm Leases in Iowa,” Bulletin No. 159, p. 171, Iowa Ex- 
periment Station, Iowa State College of Agriculture, Ames, Iowa, 1915. 

* United States Department of Agriculture, Separate Form Yearbook, 1923, 
No. 897, p. 50. 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP = 163 


graphic areas of the nation demonstrates the relationship be- 
tween increasing land values and increasing tenancy: 


TABLE 13.—RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCREASING LAND VALUES 
AND INCREASING TENANCY 


Number 
of Counties 
r Number T with 
verne of Counties} ~f2ancy 
Value Average thy Rate 
State Per Acre | Rate of nee Above 
Farm Tenancy Abaca Average; 
Land Land 
Average Walton 
Above 
Average 
FATKOUSAS ET tok: tts MOE ee $ 34.82 51eS 20 2 
PETIA PUNO ee Ete 164.20 42NG 38 8 
Dia ie ees eee 199.52 41.7 32 14 
SANSA Ae ee ee Gad 54.50 40.0 27 io 


Sous Carolina yee cade es OP 52.08 64.5 15 13 


bars 


Land Development Schemes and Types of Farm Organi- 
zation Requiring Large Outlays of Capital—Today, in addi- 
tion to a widespread appearance of tenancy, we have typical 
tenant sections, that is, sections of the country in which the 
type of tenure is predominantly that of renting or cropping, 
or of resident hired men. The most noted of these areas are 
in the South where the old slave plantations have been trans- 
formed into cropping systems. There are twenty-two counties 
in Mississippi in which 75 per cent of all the farms are tenant 
farmed and nine counties in that state with over 90 per cent 
of all farmers who are tenants. Georgia has forty-seven 
counties with over 75 per cent of all farms operated by tenants. 
Practically all other cotton states have counties with similar 
tenant percentages. It would be a mistake, however, to as- 
sume that these old plantation areas, still operated by Negro 
croppers, hired men, or tenants, are the only typical tenant 
sections of the country. There are some new and developing 
areas in which a few great capitalist holders still own prac- 


“164 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


tically all of the land and farm it by either a hired-man, crop- 
per or tenant system. Such a section is the “so-called Southeast 
Missouri section,” where a great amount of capital has been 
required to drain swamp lands. In an area in this section, 
studied by the author and colleagues, there were 48,232 acres 
included in farms. Eleven owners own 36,640 acres in the 
area. One owner participates in the ownership of 31,000 
acres. These large estates have been developing for less than 
two generations. The big development project of drainage 
has developed these large holdings and with them a high rate 
of tenancy. Since 1900, the number of farm families in these 
two counties has tripled. Practically the whole increase has 
been among the tenant class. 


TaBLe 14.—Per Crent or OWNER AND TENANT FARMS IN THE SIKESTON, 
SouTHEAST Missouri, ComMMunItTy 4 


Year Owner Tenant 
SL SSoSU ary sees te se arrien gee tia? Ya -0u) Sn ed BPD Oe ae ois 55.89 44.11 
EON SE API N yA RUS te i chorgis are che eres etek at ae atten ama 45.16 54.84 
OOO SE BNE Noe wash gciie Un at iba ies Bie Uae a a 38.35 61.65 
LEED LNG joy 8 URED OA aa Ope MNRAS tL Seiichi 28.95 71.05 
14274 0 ahs Be Geen Ie OAR EE ORME Loa ol ob 30.39 69.61 


We noted that the era has just recently passed when men 
could make the necessary first payment on a farm out of 
sums earned and saved as hired laborers. It is not that hired 
men on the farm are not as well paid, even better paid, today 
than they were two or three decades ago, but that the first 
payment of the land that sells from $75 to $400 per acre 
demands so much capital that few, if any, hired men can 
make the direct step from “hired man” to ownership. The 
result is, they must pass through the stage of tenancy if they 
expect to attain ownership. 

In the newly developing areas in which large capital in- 
vestments are necessary for clearing, draining, or irrigating 
the land, two factors operate to make ownership by small 


*'Taytor, Cart C., Yoprer, F. R., and ZimMerMAN, C. C., A Social Study of 
Farm Tenancy wn Southeast Missouri (unpublished). 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP = 165 


holders difficult. The first is that the reclamation projects are 
most easily carried forward as large-scale enterprises, and the 
second is that the land must necessarily sell at high price after 
it is reclaimed, in order to cover the cost of reclamation. The 
man with little capital cannot drain, irrigate, or even clear a 
farm for himself, nor is he able to purchase it after it is re- 
claimed by others. He, therefore, rents. Furthermore, it is 
in the areas of high and rapidly increasing land values that 
men can and do retire from their farms. Many of them do 
not care to sell, even if tenants or others wish to buy. 

Increase in Landed Estates and Retired Farmers.—Another 
possible cause of increase in tenancy in the United States may 
be the greater number of landed estates. Certain of our 
farming sections have been under cultivation for a number of 
generations. Each generation passes on to the next some 
inheritance by way of ownership in land. Many times, how- 
ever, there intervenes a period between the time that the son 
takes over the farm and the transfer of the deed, in which 
he rents the land from his father. He is in a vastly different 
position to both farm and owner than is the unrelated tenant 
but he is listed as a tenant for the time being and so increases 
the number of tenant operators. To just what extent this 
process is operating to increase tenancy it is impossible to 
state. Needless to say, if the previous owner had sold his 
farm when he was no longer able to operate it himself, there 
would not have intervened the period of tenant operation. 
The New England farms are now being farmed by about the 
sixth generation of operators, and the Central River Valley 
farms by about the third generation. Men whose fathers 
started at the bottom are now inheriting the earnings of those 
pioneer fathers. These sons may be in a more advantageous 
position in relation to ultimate ownership than were their 
fathers though they are listed, temporarily, as tenants. Their 
fathers were never tenants because of having homesteaded or 
bought land when it was cheap. 

Another phase of the problem of landed estates is that 
of the plantation system of the South. These landed estates 
were at one time farmed by big planters who used slave labor. 


166 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Today, and for that matter ever since the Civil War, these 
estates have been farmed in large part by renters and croppers. 
This transfer from owner operation to tenant operation has 
had nothing to do with the increase in tenancy since 1880 but 
was probably the greatest single cause of the increase previous 
to that time. At least the highest percentage of tenancy lay 
in the very districts where the plantation and slave system 
was at one time practiced. The same type of process is going 
on to some degree today in those sections where great ranges 
are being broken up and turned into cultivation. 

It is rather difficult to state facts which will hold true for 
all farms which are tenant operated. Of course there is a 
vast difference between tenants. There is a vast difference 
between that type of tenancy which exists where men are 
passing steadily up the agricultural ladder toward ownership 
and spend but a few years as tenants, and that type of tenancy 
where few ever aspire to and much less ever attain ownership 
of land. There are, however, differences between tenant oper- 
ation and owner operation of farms which are practically in- 
herent in a tenant system no matter where or under what 
circumstances it is found. There are causes of farm tenancy 
that are broadly true for all types of tenants and there are 
results of a tenant system that are true everywhere. 


THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF TENANT FARMING 


Poorly Balanced Agriculture—The tenant farmer almost 
universally crops the land harder than the owner. The mod- 
ern owner operator has ceased to follow the pure cropping 
methods because it doesn’t pay. The tenant continues to 
follow it because it is about the only system he can make pay. 
He hasn’t the capital to purchase the overhead equipment to 
do livestock farming. Even if he does have the capital, the 
farm is not always equipped for it. If the farm upon which 
he lives this year is equipped maybe the one to which he will 
move next year will not be thus equipped and he will be 
compelled to reduce the size of his herds and flocks at a great 
disadvantage to himself. His lack of purchasing power and 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP — 167 


capital holdings gives him poor credit standing. He needs 
quick and sure money. Field crops give him this money, and 
more quickly than does livestock. He can come nearer push- 
ing the farm to its immediate limit of production by cropping 
than he can by stock farming and since he has little or no in- 
terest in the farm as a physical unit of production but a great 
interest in it as a unit of economic production, he will choose 
that system of farming which suits his individual needs best, 
unless forbidden to do so by a specific rent contract. He, 
therefore, mines the soil and thus injures the land for all 
time. Nor is he individually to be blamed for doing so. He 
must do this very thing if he ever expects to raise himself out 
of the class of tenants into that of ownership. 

The areas in which single crops furnish the cash income 
from farms are the very areas in which high rates of tenancy 
maintain. The two outstanding illustrations of this fact are 
the cotton belt and the corn belt. Bizzell presents a table of 
statistics which shows that in the ten leading cotton-produc- 
ing states the proportion of improved lands farmed by tenants 
is almost in direct ratio to the number of bales of cotton the 
states produce.’ It is a notorious fact that the economic base 
of agriculture has been damaged by such cropping and that 
the crying need is for more livestock on southern farms. A 
survey of a high-class and diversified farming area in Missouri 
showed that 17.4 per cent of the tenants had no more than two 
kinds of livestock on their farms, and 35.4 per cent had only 
three kinds of livestock. In this community, 57.6 per cent 
of owners had four and five kinds of livestock on their farms.’ 
In this and other surveys of the same general sections, it was 
found that the owners had about one fourth more livestock 
per acre than the tenants. 

In a recent survey of over 1,000 farms in North Carolina 
it was found that tenants had just a little over one-half as 
many animals per cultivated crop acre as the owners have. 
The deficiency in animals has been discovered in every com- 


1BizzELL, W. B. “Farm Tenancy in the United States,’ Bul. No. 278, 
Texas Agricultural Experimental Station, A. & M. College, Texas. 

*Taytor, Cart C., A Social Survey of the Columbia Trade Area, Boone 
County, Missourt (unpublished). 


168 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


parative study that has been made of owners and tenants 
living in the same agricultural locality. 

Depletes Soil Fertility—Too many crops, too few animals, 
failure to practice crop rotation, and the absence of improve- 
ment crops serve consistently to deplete the fertility of the 
soil. The presence of a goodly number of animals on the farm 
furnishes manure for fertilizers, demands that a larger portion 
of the farm be devoted to pasture and forage crops, and keeps 
a much greater per cent of the “ruffage”’ on the farm. The 
practice of diversified farming works on the conscious plan of 
using those crops which supplement each other in conserving 
and constructing soil fertility. Improvement crops are used 
to restore to the soil those elements of fertility which other 
crops have depleted, and to put into the soil those elements 
which will furnish the base for future production. Tenants 
find it more to their advantage not to practice any of these 
things than to practice them. They are often not on any 
given farm long enough to follow out a definite crop rotation 
and get the results, therefore, that crop is chosen that pays 
best for the given year. They are not on one farm long enough 
to get the ultimate value of improvement crops, therefore, 
they fail to plant them. The results of such practices are best 
seen in those areas and on those farms which have been farmed 
by tenants over long periods of time. In a survey of over 
1,000 farms in North Carolina, it was discovered that the 
Negro croppers of the cotton and tobacco belt were utilizing 
99.6 per cent of the land for the growing of soil depleting 
crops.’ 

The Tenant Being a Poor Man Affects Both Agriculture and 
Community Iife-—The enterprise of farming demands capital 
and long-time planning to make it pay. The tenant does not 
have either capital or credit with which to farm profitably. 
He has to take short cuts to dividends. He does those things 
which pay best for the time being and lets other things go 
undone. ‘This practice has had bad effects not only on soil 

*'Taytor, Cart C., and ZimmMerMaAN, C. C., “Economie and Social Conditions 


of North Carolina Farmers,’ Bulletin, of North Carolina State College of 
Agriculture, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1922. 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP = 169 


fertility and farm profits but upon community life as well. 
He cannot educate his children, supply comforts and conveni- 
ences for his home, or support community enterprises to the 
extent that the more wealthy and prosperous farm owners do. 


THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF TENANCY 


A Comparatively Low Standard of Living.—Every factor 
which constitutes a standard of social efficiency in individual, 
home, or community life is jeopardized by tenant farming. In 
the first place, the tenant family does not own the house in 
which it lives. This one fact alone is of deepest significance 
not only to the family so conditioned but to the community 
and the nation. Lack of home ownership offers little incentive 
for home improvement. The tenant cannot afford to invest 
money in the improvement of property that is not his own, 
especially when he is not sure of his tenure. The landlord 
never expects to live in the tenant house and he, therefore, 
has little interest in its improvement beyond what will in- 
crease the rental value of the farm. The result is that tenants 
almost universally live in poorer houses than do farm owners 
of the same community. 

In the Columbia, Missouri, Trade Area, 65.7 per cent of 
the houses in which tenants live are over thirty years old. 
In the Sikeston, Missouri, Community, 31.0 per cent of the 
croppers live in either one- or two-room houses. The average 
size of these share-croppers’ families in the Sikeston Commun- 
ity was a little more than three persons. This means that 
in 81 per cent of their homes there was but two-thirds of a 
room per person. For the whole share-cropper group in the 
community the average was one and one-tenth persons per 
room. The standard for good housing is one and one-half 
rooms per person. In this same community the tenant families 
had two and one-fourth persons per bedroom. The croppers 
had two and fifty-two one-hundredths persons and the hired 
men three and one-tenth persons per bedroom. An adequate 
housing standard permits but one and one-half persons per 
bedroom as an average. Only 32.2 per cent of the hired men 


170 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


had clothes closets in their homes; 7.8 per cent of the hired 
men had no porches; 45.5 per cent of the tenant yards had no 
grass plot; and 94.1 per cent had no trees in the yard. This 
community is not representative of the better tenant sections 
of the nation. It is representative of a typical tenant area and 
shows how little we can expect adequate housing under a sys- 
tem of tenant farming. 

In North Carolina, it is calculated that one-fifth of the 
landless families live in one- or two-room shacks. A similar 
condition prevails throughout the whole Southern tenant 
area. The difference between tenant and owner houses is not 
so marked in other sections of the country and yet the lack of 
incentive for home improvement on the part of both landlord 
and tenant is present wherever tenancy exists, and its effects 
are generally clearly evident within each separate community. 

Houses furnish the dominant physical environment of over 
one-half of the farm population, the women and children, 
practically all of the time, and of all the farm population for 
part of the time. If the house is old and poorly built; the 
yard space and room space inadequate; the heating, lighting 
and arrangement poor; then life, health and happiness are 
handicapped for those who live there. Tenants universally 
suffer these handicaps in greater degree than owners of the 
same communities do. 

Even more important than the house are household equip- 
ment and conveniences, for they constitute the work technol- 
ogies of farm women and dictate the organization of farm 
family life. In the Sikeston Survey the yards were measured 
by six points of merit: grass plot, trees, shrubs, flowers, yard 
walks, and yard fences. A normal score would show at least 
5 out of 6, and a good score would show all of them. The 
average cropper’s home scored 2.08; the average tenant’s home 
3.46; and the average hired man’s home 2.13. The owner- 
operator homes of this same community scored an average of 
4.85 of these points of merit per yard. The following table 
gives the information on household conveniences for the same 
community. The absence of conveniences runs in direct pro- 
portion to low-tenure status. This is a community which is 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP § 171 


TABLE 15.—Per Cents or Various Types or Tenure Homes Havina House- 
HOLD CONVENIENCES 








) Hired 
Convenience Owner | Tenant | Cropper Tees 
ATES TOLIELS So eo ees iets a ae eas Pi OF 1.66 
Running water in kitchen.............. LeU Vil Lt 
PSCUTIC Ol PASS OTS ek hens sis conden Ok 19.50 1.66 
RCT LEG te reese ta Ws Fs creme aahate 12.19 
CHEE V ES Tee vitae es ml sags vee sea CRG Ie ie Zalos 0.00 9.55 
Wineiilig MAehine irs. ose 25 eyes oS ii abite a4 | MOF peal é 0.00 1.68 
SMIMOSIIACUING ats tee et eh oe ot 100.00 | 94.44 86.20 71.34 
PEIETSIOLIO Ma ree Sard ek chia hie ok at 46.34 | 26.66 13.90 16273 
Wacuiinnclonner idl 2 ke eo a ee vs 17.07 Wait 
PASTE Oy ha Seb aia tL BE Rae ai Ae is SA id 305.53 |157.74 |100.00 98 .30 
Percent of ideal'standard?.. 0) 20. 33.9 £Z.5 BUC 10.9 





predominantly low class because nine-tenths of the homes of 
the community are not owned by the persons who live in 
them. That there are some differences existing between 
tenants and owners everywhere throughout America is indi- 
cated by the facts presented in the following table. These 
data are for Tennessee, North Carolina, Iowa, and Nebraska 
and are representative for the nation: 


TABLE 16.—PERCENTAGE OF HomgEsS oF OWNERS AND TENANTS PROVIDED 
WITH CERTAIN HOUSEHOLD CONVENIENCES 2 











Kind of Convenience Z,8 1% ne 
Owners Tenants 

RPUNM OA WALCtTII NOUSCS eshte wired Wie delete a) cates Ohara ce. 19.6 7.4 
BAL UIOOMIS AN Nae oe ta: tt ete OMT AE SE athe 18.0 yd 
PTH OTEULEL SULT? eet dices) CANS Aly tha ses ew ake er oa PATOL 12.9 4.4 
Hiewric omeas lighting systems. oa eness lek bene. Clas Las 8.0 
GeniralneauiigisVateInauemnic meets meus few eles Sal 4.1 
MAE RIeT a ON amends oct esd aay, i Mob ae Rw ta S hoe 20.7 2627 
AP Gia Ty Gu TOL COOKING. nines sete ae Yeni ado Ausra aa eh 41.9 28.8 
WRCUUMMCICATIOTS rae etek! Were aCe nTe aan uk earth ks aU 1S 7 6.7 








* An ideal standard would place each of these conveniences in every home 
of the community. 

* Quoted from United States Department of Agriculture. Separate Year 
Book, 1923, No. 897, p. 582; United States Department of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 


172 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Whether the standard is one of house or home convenience 
and whether it is an item furnished by tenant or landlord, 
housing, home organization, and home life are handicapped in 
tenant families just to the degree that the facts set forth in 
these tables indicate. 

There are effects upon family life which result from tenant 
farming that are even more significant than any phase of 
housing. In the North Carolina survey of over 1,000 farm 
families it was discovered that 89 per cent of the mothers in 
the tenant families worked in the field. In the Sikeston, Mis- 
souri, Community 66.66 per cent of the parents kept their 
children out of school to hire out away from home. In the 
Sikeston Community, in 45.15 per cent of the cropper families, 
the mothers had married as early as fourteen years of age. 
These people participate so little in any other than home life 
that they early seek to escape the “humdrum” of their parents’ 
household. In a vast majority of cases they establish similar 
homes of their own. 

The amount of money a family expends on various con- 
sumption goods is no measurement of either its happiness or 
well-being, but a comparison of such expenditures does give 
some basis for comparing the standards of living of tenants 
and owner families. These facts were presented in Chap. VI, 
but should be repeated here in order to emphasize the point 
under discussion. In practically every survey that has been 
made of farm family living conditions, it has been found that 
tenant families have a much smaller budget to expend on their 
standard of living. Because of this fact, a large per cent of 
their total family expenditures must and does go to purchase 
food and clothing. This leaves not only a smaller proportion 
of their budget to be spent for health, education, religion, rec- 
reation, etc., but leaves them a very much lower gross amount 
to expend for these things. No individual has to do more than 
review his own points of interests, zest, and happiness to know 
that this fact constitutes a real menace to well-being and is 
bound to be a matter of dissatisfaction to any one who is thus 
situated. No amount of philosophizing by others, that such 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP = 173 


must be and that it is economically productive in the nation 
at large, can obviate this stern psychological fact. 

The following series of short tables set forth some items in 
the restricted standard of living of tenant families as compared 
to owner families: 


TaBLE 17.—PER CENT OF Farm OWNER AND TENANT Famitigs TAKING 
Various CLASSES OF PERIODICALS: TEN SuRvEyYs! 





Percentage of All Families Taking: 





Number |} 
of Agricul- 
Families | Dailies | tural | Weeklies| Maga- | Others 
papers zines 
White owners..| 1,593 70.8 60.9 59.8 43 .2 Sid 
White tenants.| 1,493 Oo e 46.7 29.9 28.8 4.1 


TasBLe 18.—PER CENT of Owners, TENANTS, AND CroppErRs Havina Avto- 
MOBILES, TELEPHONES, AND RuRAL FREE DELIVERY? 





Tenure Class Automobiles| Telephones pao, aa 
elivery 
SET ORCT OD OLS, terete ala arlle (o ln ost ven re 16.4 20.0 86.0 
PLIECRCEIIOU Sere tees Oe eon ae ee 45.9 A7.4 85.0 
Meta OrulOn dla) ew arn Meee ty bir he al ¢ 80.8 69.2 96.0 
IW DeTOUeLALOLat Weta. 8 aie ticles A oel'y. Ss 74.4 59.0 90.5 


TABLE 19.—PER CENT OF OWNER AND TENANT FAMILIES ATTENDING RECREA- 
TIONAL Events Durina OnE YEAR’s TIME? 


One Two Three Four ae 
Class Kind of | Kinds of | Kinds of | Kinds of Bae None 


Event Events Events Events |. Tainde 


| SS SE eS LL eee 


1Data from surveys in Ohio, North Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Kentucky, 
and Tennessee. United States Department of Agriculture, Separate From 
Year Book, 1923, No. 897, pp. 579-580. 

*Sanpers, J. T., “Farm Ownership and Tenancy in the Black Prairie of 
Texas,” United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 1068, p. 55, 
Washington, D. C. 

8'Taytor, Cart C. and ZimMERMAN, C. C., “Economic and Social Conditions 
of North Carolina Farmers,” Bulletin North Carolina State College, Raleigh, 
North Carolina, 1923. 


174 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


All these items in a family standard of living tell the same 
story, namely, a story of restricted and handicapped social 
life among farm-tenant families. Other items in the standard 
of living might just as well have been used as illustrative 
material for they all follow the same trend as those presented 
here. 

Poor Social Institutions—Every phase of institutional life 
in a community is affected adversely by the prevalence of 
any large number of tenant families in the community. These 
landless farm families cannot and do not financially support 
the social institutions as liberally as owner families do. More- 
over, their failure universally to participate in the institutional 
life of the community handieaps the operation of social insti- 
tutions even more than does their lack of financial support. 
Professor Sanders found in the Black Prairie of Texas that 
the median school grades attained by tenant farmers, their 
wives, and children were universally lower than those for 
owners. E. V. White found in this same state that the coun- 
ties having high tenancy rates had short school terms, compar- 
atively small percentages of enrollment, and poorer daily at- 
tendance. The school attainment of the owners, whether 
fathers, mothers, or children was almost exactly twice what it 
was for croppers. Among the croppers in medium financial 
circumstances neither of the parents nor the children, over 
twenty-one years of age, attained an average school status of 
fifth grade.t 

In North Carolina it was found that 31.3 per cent of the 
landless parents had never attended school, whereas, by this 
same survey it was found that only 8.2 per cent of the land 
owners were in this class. Such comparisons as these have 
been found wherever concrete studies have been made, though, 
of course, the differences between the two classes of tenure 
vary widely in different sections of the country. 

A tenant population is nearly always a shifting population. 

*Wuuitsr, BE. V. and Davis, E. E., “A Study of Rural Schools in Texas,” 
Unversity of Texas Extension Series, No. 62, Austin, Texas, 1914. 

*'TayLor, Cart C. and ZIMMERMAN, C. C., Hconomic and Social Conditions 


of North Carolina Farmers, North Carolina State College, Raleigh, North 
Carolina, 1922. 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP 175 


Tenants are poor and so need their children at home. They 
are often instructed by their landlords not to vote high school 
taxes. They move their families in the middle of the school 
year. All of these things jeopardize the education of their 
children and the education of all other children in the com- 
munities where tenant farming exists. 

The religious institutions of the community are no less 
handicapped by tenancy than are educational institutions. 
In every survey that has been made it is shown that tenants 
attend religious services less, are less often members of the 
church, and contribute less to the support of religion than do 
owners. In the survey of four counties in Northwestern 
Ohio, it was revealed that while 86.6 per cent of the owners 
were church members, only 18.4 per cent of the tenants’ 
names were on the church rolls of the community. In a study 
in Johnson County, Missouri, 40.7 per cent of the owners and 
only 29.6 per cent of thet tenants were church members; and 
30.5 per cent of the owners and only 18.5 per cent of the 
tenants attended Sunday school. The owners contributed 
two and nine-tenths times as much per person to the support 
of the church as did the tenants.? In the Sikeston, Missouri, 
Community 71.86 per cent of the owners, 52.56 per cent of 
the tenants, 35.03 per cent of the hired men, and 28.81 per 
cent of the croppers attended church. Practically the same 
ratio maintained in Sunday school attendance. The tenants 
contributed one-fourth as much to the church support as did 
the owners, while the croppers contributed only one-fourteenth 
as much and the hired men contributed one-fifteenth as much 
as the owners. It must be remembered that hired men and 
croppers are an established part of the tenancy system in this 
community and that they constitute about 50 per cent of the 
population. The natural results are that only one of the 
country churches had a resident pastor and three of the six 
rural churches of the community were abandoned or closed. 

1Ohio Rural Life Survey, Northwestern Ohio, pp. 40-42, Department of 
rt and Country Life, Board of Home Mission Presbyterian Church, New 


* Jounson, O. R., and Forp, W. E., Land Tenure, Bulletin No. 212, Missouri 
Agricultural, Experiment Station, Columbia, Missouri. 


176 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


There were sixty of these lower-tenure homes of the com- 
munity which did not have Bibles in their homes. Neither 
did they have any other type of religious literature. 

The fact that the presence of any great number of tenants 
in a community lowers the home, church, and school life of 
the community is sufficient evidence that tenancy is a menace 
to the social life of any community. The evils of tenancy do 
not stop with their influence upon the major social institu- 
tions. Roads, lodges, and recreational and civic organizations 
are all affected by tenancy. In the Sikeston, Missouri, Com- 
munity even neighborhood visiting was infrequent among the 
lower-tenure operators. About 27 per cent of them said they 
never visited even neighbors of their own tenure class, and 
about 15 per cent more said they visited neighbors no more 
frequently than once per month. The average attendance at 
community gatherings was 12.25 per cent in the case of 
tenants, 8.73 per cent in the case of hired men, and 7.79 per 
cent in the case of croppers. The average for the owners was 
16.84 per cent. Only 55.5 per cent of the tenants, 3.8 per 
cent of the hired men, and none of the croppers belonged to 
civic or fraternal organizations. Over 70 per cent of the 
owner operators belonged to such organizations. Less than 
75 per cent of the members of the lower-tenure groups voted 
regularly. Over 92 per cent of the owner operators voted 
regularly. Less than 4 per cent of the croppers and less than 
3 per cent of the hired men had ever held any civic office. 
These were school and church offices equally divided. 

Tenants Create Unprogressive Communities —In the com- 
munity enterprise that demands voluntary effort tenants are 
likely to contribute very little. Roads, community recreation, 
civic buildings, and churches are projects which must be built 
and maintained by voluntary subscription and work. Few 
tenants are assured of a sufficiently long tenure in the com- 
munity to make it individually profitable for them to con- 
tribute much to these enterprises. ‘To make a living requires 
the greater portion of their time and they are very hesitant 
about allowing their own business to suffer while they assist 
a community enterprise from which they expect to reap few 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP 177 


benefits. A community which has a large percentage of ten- 
ants in its population not only fails to project these commu- 
nity enterprises but fails even to be concerned about them. 
In the Sikeston survey each head of a family was asked to 
express an opinion on improvement of schools, churches, roads, 
cooperative marketing, scientific farming, and higher educa- 
tion. The following table presents a summary of the attitudes 
demonstrated by the members of the community: 


TaBLeE 20.—Opinions RecarpINna Degrinire ComMuNITY IMPROVEMENT (IN 


PERCENTAGES) 
Opinion Owner Tenant Cropper |Hired Man 
For improvement............-. Siindih 73.81 46.77 46.79 
Opposed to improvement...... 9.06 9.20 28 .07 46.79 
No opinion regarding improve- 
MRAGING eae ene LE fA EL aid 5 y's 3.83 16.99 25.16 20.55 


From this table of over 900 individual opinions, it is seen 
that 26.19 per cent of the tenants, 53.23 per cent of the crop- 
pers, and 53.23 per cent of the hired men were either opposed 
to or unconcerned about the various items of improvement. 
That is, among those classes which constituted over 90 per 
cent of this community there was very little concern about 
the improvement of those things which contribute directly to 
community upbuilding. 

Hereditary Tenancy—The study of the life histories of 
tenants quite universally shows that economic opportunity 
has been denied them from the beginning of their lives. In 
the Columbia Trade Area, Boone County, Missouri, it was 
found that 50.18 per cent of the present owners had received 
assistance toward ownership. Only 19.58 per cent of the ten- 
ants had ever been helped. Over 20 per cent of the tenants 
were sons of tenants or non-land owners. In the North Caro- 
lina survey it was found that 70 per cent of landless farmers 
are sons of landless men. In the Boone County, Missouri, 
survey 63 per cent of the present wealth holdings of the 
owners had either been given them or had been gotten from 
an increase in land values. Their gifts had come to them at 


178 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


the average age of thirty-two years. These beginnings in 
land ownership, furnished them by gifts and inheritance, gave 
them the opportunities to participate in the profits of ad- 
vancing land values. Only 20 per cent of the land owners in 
the Sikeston Community had climbed the agricultural ladder 
in that community. In the North Carolina survey only 27.8 
per cent of the present owners started landless, and 59 per 
cent of their present wealth holdings was acquired by gift, 
inheritance, or marriage. Under present conditions of farm- 
ing and present values of farm lands, it is not only difficult 
but practically impossible, for men to obtain land ownership 
without financial assistance. We may, therefore, expect that 
even more in the future than in the past or present some men 
will be tenants simply because they do not inherit ownership 
of land, or wealth in some other form. 

When men have been asked why they were tenants rather 
than owners their replies have been, “the lack of capital to 
buy a farm,” “living on parents, or parents-in-law’s farms, 
which they later expected to inherit,” ‘afraid to risk buying” 
and “there is more money in renting.” 

The causes of tenancy, as the causes of failure to own other 
property, everywhere are complex. Indeed, they are too 
complex to be explained by the easy-going statements, that, 
“there are some men who are just that kind,” and “they 
eouldn’t run farms if they did own them.” 

We have sufficiently described the economic and social 
effects of farm tenancy to make it apparent that it is one of 
the biggest rural problems in America today. Unless it is 
attacked in some fundamental and drastic way it is destined 
to be a greater problem than it is now. There may be no 
patent way out of the ever-growing problem of farm tenancy. 
There are economic policies, however, which if inaugurated 
and carried out on state and national scales, can go far in 
solving the problem. Our difficulty is that we have not yet 
come to recognize the possibility of a national system of 
farm tenancy. We have analyzed neither the causes nor the 


1The writer in three tenancy studies, two in Missouri and one in North 
Carolina, has asked approximately 1,000 tenants the question to which these 
replies are answers. 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP 179 


effects, and even where we have made some progress in 
analysis, the general public has refused to accept the findings 
because of our prosperity ideals and because in our popu- 
lation there are those who think that it is profitable to have 
a system of tenant farming. When tenant farmers have come 
to constitute over 50 per cent of our farm operators, absentee 
landlordism has developed a little further, and the enlighten- 
ment of tenants has grown apace, we will attack our problem 
and make some progress in solving it. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE TENANCY PROBLEM 


Tenant Problems Can Be Solved.—If no progress had been 
made in the direction of solving this difficult problem, it would 
be audacious to suggest that it is solvable. The difficulty in 
America is not that we refuse to believe the evidence of attain- 
ment in England, Ireland, Denmark, or New Zealand, but that 
we do not quite realize that tenancy is a problem of any 
magnitude in the United States. It is yet looked upon in this 
country as an individual rather than a social problem. The 
tenant class is not class conscious as it 1s in England, Ireland, 
and Denmark. American landlords are not thought of as a 
class either, due to the fact that so small a proportion of them 
come into ownership by the inheritance of old family farm 
estates and because they readily and habitually transfer their 
wealth holdings from land to other economic enterprises rather 
than establish a county gentry or overlord system such as grew 
up in European countries. The almost total absence of either 
one of these hereditary classes permits us to drift steadily 
into a system of land tenure, with all the social consequences 
which we have depicted, without being conscious of the fact 
that we are evolving a condition which is menacing to good 
community life in many rural districts and brewing a problem 
that must and will ultimately come into clear public con- 
sciousness. 

Upon no theory of human nature except an extreme belief 
in hereditary human inequalities can we assume that the 
tenancy problem is insoluble, Denmark is a denial of this 


180 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


theory. Fifty years ago almost 50 per cent of all Danish 
farmers were poor, illiterate, plodding tenants. Today the 
children of this same human stock are home-owning, enlight- 
ened, thrifty farmers. This transition did not take place in a 
day nor has it been solely due by any means to the state aid 
given to those desiring farm ownership. It has nevertheless 
taken place in two generations of time and has been accom- 
plished by a people who had for generations been hereditary 
tenants and who were no more thrifty and enlightened than 
hundreds of thousands of American farm tenants for whom 
many express no hope. 

Accomplishments of Foreign Countries—There is no at- 
tempt made here to give a complete economic analysis or 
history of all the land policies and programs by which other 
nations have assisted men to farm-home ownership. Only a 
sufficient number of examples are given and sufficient data 
presented to show that where the tenancy problem has been 
attacked progress has been made toward its solution. 

Denmark by a law of 1875 created land credit banks which 
received state aid and whose function and purpose it was to 
assist men to the ownership of small farms. By supplemen- 
tary laws, passed in 1899, 1904, and 1909 a complete system 
of state aid to landless men was established. The essence of 
these laws is to loan nine-tenths of the purchase price of a 
small farm to farm tenants or agricultural workers who are 
between twenty-five and fifty years of age and who can prove 
their merit by the guarantee of two persons. The rate of 
interest is low (4 per cent) and the payments are so arranged 
that the debt is hquidated at the end of forty-six and one- 
half years. Recognizing that the beginning farmer needs 
money for farm improvement and operating capital, nothing 
but interest payment is required during the first five years. 
During the first sixteen years of the present century 8,200 
families were assisted to farm ownership. A total of $12,- 
500,000 was advanced to them by the state in loans, all of 
which will be paid back as these men gain complete proprietor- 
ship in their farms. This movement, together with their 
cooperative credit unions, cooperative marketing associations, 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP 181 


and universal education has made of Denmark a nation of 
farm owners. It has all been accomplished in a period of 
about fifty years. 

In England no such outstanding results have been accom- 
plished, but considerable has been done to lessen farm tenancy. 
In the last decade of the nineteenth century England began 
her attempts to cope with this problem. In 1883, John Rae 
estimated that not over 5 per cent of the farmers of England 
owned the land they tilled. In 1895, the Royal Agricultural 
Commission reported that it was quite impossible for a tenant 
to become an owner because the interest rates on farm mort- 
gages exceeded the rent charges. In 1900, 86 per cent of all 
land in crops in England was farmed by tenants. The Small 
Holdings Act of 1892 and supplementary acts passed in 1908 
and 1910 made provision for helping landless men to gain 
ownership. Under these acts 130,526 individuals were moved 
into home ownership in six years’ time. Since then almost 
10,000 applications have been approved under the Soldier 
Settlement Act. 

In Ireland, outstanding success has followed the honest at- 
tempt to reduce farm tenancy. The Irish Land Purchase Act 
of 1903 made transfer of land compulsory under certain con- 
ditions. The estate commission was provided with $500,000,- 
000 for financing the transfer of lands and a sum of $60,000,000 
was set aside to assist tenants in making the one-fourth cash 
payment on farms. The Royal Commission was empowered 
to purchase the land on appraisal and to sell it to tenant occu- 
pants on the basis of a 3% per cent annual payment, 3 per 
cent to be interest and one-half per cent to liquidate the 
debt in sixty-eight and one-half years. 

In New Zealand, large estates may be taken over, sub- 
divided, and subleased to farmers. Long-term loans are made 
to settlers for making improvements. A progressive or grad- 
uated land tax is levied on large estates. This tax is increased 
50 per cent in the case of absentee landlords. Thousands of 
farmers have been established on the land since these acts 
went into effect and large estates have been practically elim- 
inated. 


182 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


In the United States—No state or national legislation so 
far reaching as what has just been described has been enacted 
in the United States. Nevertheless, some attempts have been 
made to solve the problem. South Dakota and Minnesota 
each have Rural Credit Bureaus which issue bonds, the re- 
ceipts of which are used to loan to farmers to purchase land. 
The South Dakota Bureau has been in operation since 1918 
and has made loans to over 11,000 farmers. 

California has established two state settlements upon which 
it has located about 500 farm families and assisted them 
to ownership. This plan was copied from the Australian 
system where twenty-two such settlements had been estab- 
lished. The avowed purpose of these settlements was to 
assist to home ownership families who could make only small 
payments on land and who needed to be financially assisted 
in improving and stocking their farms. The Land Settlement 
Board is authorized to prepare the land for cultivation, con- 
struct buildings and other improvements, so as “‘to render the 
allotment habitable and productive in advance of or after 
settlement.” The board can also make loans for the purchase 
of livestock and equipment. Settlers are required to pay at 
the time of purchase only 5 per cent of the appraised value 
of the land and 40 per cent of the value of improvements 
made or to be made. The balance of the purchase price of 
the land is paid over a period of time that may run for forty 
years and the balance of the amount due on improvements 
may be paid over a twenty-year period. These settlements 
have demonstrated the feasibility of the state assisting poor 
men to farm ownership by wise financial and agricultural 
assistance. 

Wisconsin, through a Division of Immigration, a plan of 
licensing land brokers and real estate dealers, and the estab- 
lishing of Land Mortgage Associations, has provided machinery 
by which home-seeking farmers can be assured of correct 
appraisal of agricultural lands, and financial assistance in 
purchasing, improving, and stocking their farms. The result 
is that cut-over and drainage areas which require elaborate 
reclamation costs and which would otherwise be left idle or 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP 183 


converted into large capital estates, farmed by tenants or 
hired men, are now developing into enterprising home-owning 
communities. 

These few examples from other countries and from some 
states in the United States are in no sense exhaustive. They 
have not been discussed either analytically or critically. 
Neither of these things was the purpose of their brief pres- 
entation. They are the outstanding examples of attempts 
made to solve the farm tenancy problem. In the first place, 
they indicate a growing consciousness throughout the world 
of the significance to state and national welfare of a develop- 
ing tenant class of citizens. They also indicate a considerable 
degree of success by way of solution of this difficult economic 
and social problem. 

Suggestions for Attacking Farm Tenancy in the United 
States——The difference between types of farm tenants is so 
great that any broad generalization of needed action in their 
behalf is difficult of application to all types. The cropper of 
the cotton states, for instance, is often no more than a farm 
hired hand who receives his wages in a share of the crop he 
produces. He owns no work animals, no farm machinery, 
sometimes not even any household furniture and furnishes 
none of the capital necessary to operate the farm. He is 
most often financed by the landlord even for his family living 
expenses. Contrasted with him is the mid-western tenant who 
has thousands of dollars’ worth of livestock, machinery, and 
household equipment. In many cases he pays a flat cash an- 
nual rental and is complete entrepreneur of the farm for 
the period of his rent contract. He, in many instances, is more 
wealthy than some landlords in other sections of the country. 
Between these two extremes vary thousands with different 
tenure status, generally depending upon their financial worth 
but to some degree conditioned by the customs of the locality 
in which they live. 

In all studies of specific persons who have been able to rise 
from tenancy to ownership it has been discovered that their 
success has been conditioned by the receipt of financial as- 
sistance in the forms of inheritance, gift, or by marriage; or 


184 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


they have been related by blood or marriage to the landlords 
from whom they rented; or they have attained ownership 
during the period of low-priced lands. The financial assistance 
often may have been slight but, coming to the farmer early 
in his farming career, it gave him a deed to a piece of land the 
increase in the capital value of which later in life represented 
a large per cent of his capital worth. In a survey covering 
24,000 landlords in twenty-four states it was found that 18.8 
per cent of their wealth was acquired by inheritance, gift, mar- 
riage, or homesteading.t This amount represents a large 
per cent of their present worth. In thousands of cases it 
represents “‘the nest egg” with which they started, which con- 
stitutes the differential between them and the men who have 
never risen into farm ownership and so have never increased 
their net worth by the universal rise in land values. Reports 
from about 30,000 farmers representing all sections of the 
nation indicate that 43 per cent of the present capital worth 
of farm owners accrued from increase in land values. Ob- 
viously, those who received assistance to ownership early 
in life have profited by forces which were in no way imputable 
to them and in no way the faults of landless men. These 
facts, plus the fact that a very small percentage of men who 
are now tenants have attained ownership and then lost it, 
indicate that the most important step in assisting men to farm- 
home ownership is to assist them by some scheme of financing 
which requires a small initial payment and allows them a 
long period of time in which to liquidate the remainder of 
the debt out of the profits of farming. If this is done, they, 
like the great majority, will accumulate moderate estates out 
of the gradual, but over long periods of time almost inevitable, 
increase in land values. Every example we have cited from 
this or other nations owes its success and value ma to 
a plan of this kind. 

The comparative success of farm tenants who are related 
to the landlords whose farms they till, indicates that an in- 
terested supervision has much to do with making the tenants 


* These data are taken from all the studies referred to in this chapter, 
which touch this point. 


THE PROBLEM OF TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP = 185 


ultimate successes. The California and the Australia settle- 
ments offer both financial supervision and agricultural counsel 
to the men they seek to assist to farm ownership. In the 
United States at the present time, any such state aid and 
counsel is likely to be looked upon as paternalistic. This 
type of service, however, is exactly what these men need to 
hold them up until they can get agricultural and financial 
footing. 

The third suggestion for assisting the men who till the soil 
to the ownership of it is a progressive land tax. New Zealand 
has adopted this system of taxation to good effect. If the 
men who hold large estates or a number of farms but do not 
themselves farm them or in any sense manage them were 
compelled to pay a tax which increased with the number 
of acres they owned or with the increased capital worth of 
their farm lands it would be an inducement for them to sell 
to tenant farmers who have considerable capital assets but 
find no land for sale at its current productive values. 

In conclusion it should be again emphasized that no matter 
what arguments, true or false, are urged in favor of tenant 
farming, we cannot look with complacency upon the facts 
that we have over two million tenant farm families in the 
United States, that their number is increasing every year, 
and that their standards of living are universally lower than 
that of farm owners and lower than can be tolerated in a nation 
whose culture still inheres to a large degree in the type of a 
rural civilization it can build. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


“Home and Farm Ownership,” North Carolina Club Year Book 1921-1922, 
Vol. II, No. 9, University Extension Division, University of North Caro- 
lina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 

United States Department of Agriculture, Separate Form Year Book 1923, 
No. 897, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
Mean, E., Helping Men Own Farms, The Macmillan Company, New York, 

1920. 


Howsn, F. C., Denmark, A Cooperative Commonwealth, Harcourt, Brace and 
Company, New York, 1921. 

Taytor, Cart C. and Zimmerman, C. C., The Economic and Social Con- 
ditions of North Carolina Farmers, North Carolina State College, Raleigh, 
North Carolina, 1922. 


CHAPTER Ix 
THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 
THE FAMILY AS A RURAL INSTITUTION 


The Family as a Social Institution—The family is one of 
our major social institutions. It ranks with, or above, the 
state, the school, the church, and industry in its significance in 
carrying on organized social life. Its primary function is to 
bear children and rear them to manhood and womanhood, 
physically, mentally, and morally. It supersedes and ante- 
dates all the social institutions in its influence upon the life of 
each individual. In this sense, it is our primary social institu- 
tion. It is primary in another sense, for practically every gen- 
eral type of human relationship, adjustment, and activity of life 
is present, and is a necessary part of family life. In the family, 
both sexes are present, the young and the old are there; the 
questions of making a living are discussed in the home and 
each member of the family is likely to be called upon to par- 
ticipate in the discussion and in the solution of these economic 
problems. Much of education takes place in the home. Re- 
ligious and practical attitudes are expressed by the adult 
members of the family and become assimilated in the minds of 
the children. Courtesy, obedience, loyalty, altruism, team 
work, manners, ideas, ideals, and ambitions are developed 
largely in the home. Many times an occupation is learned in 
the home. Practically every type of question and problem 
with which the children will, in after years, be concerned is 
presented, discussed, and, in one way or another, resolved 
within the family circle. 

Children learn in the home to treat persons of their own 
age and sex with fairness. They learn how to treat persons 
of the opposite sex and of different ages with both fairness 
and courtesy. All members of the family learn the need of a 

186 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 187 


division of labor in the performance of the common tasks. 
Justice between different members of the family is almost 
universal. Public opinion prevails, to a large degree, in the 
family circle. A fair distribution of the economic dividends 
among the various members of the family is the rule. Solici- 
tude for other members of the family group is not only present 
in home life, but lasts long after the family is scattered. In 
short, the family is a training place for life. 

It is in the family that the child becomes a participant in 
the regular and customary practices of society. From the age 
of two or three years, it is taught what it should and should 
not do, what it must and must not do. These restrictions are 
merely the customary relationships to which older members 
of society have become used, and which they know the child 
must learn sooner or later. An infant has no notion of other 
persons’ rights, of fairness and justice, or of manners and 
customs. Persons learn these things gradually, and learn a 
very large body of them by example and precept, in their long 
period of home life. The character and personality of a child 
are thus made in the home, and this development of character 
and personality is more fundamental than all he may later 
learn. 

Practically all nations recognize the necessity of safeguard- 
ing their home and family life. They pass laws penalizing any 
person who jeopardizes the wholesomeness and survival of 
family life. Marriage is made legitimate by law. Divorce 
must be sanctioned by law. The violation of the sex integrity 
of the home is sometimes punishable by death. The original 
homestead is often not taxed. The parents are made legally 
responsible for the acts of their children until they have 
reached their majority. The sanctity of the home is guarded 
and guaranteed by the state and nation, in order that the con- 
tributions of the home to society may be assured. Neither 
the integrity, wholesomeness, nor contributions of the family, 
however, can be insured by law, as is altogether too well proven 
by the disintegration of the American family. We shall there- 
fore have to count on influence other than law to preserve 


188 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


the home and all that has just been depicted as its contribu- 
tions to our larger social life. 

The Uniqueness of the Rural Home and Family—The 
rural family is unique in two ways: first, the importance and 
influence of the home in rural life in comparison and com- 
petition with other social institutions is much greater than 
it is in the city; second, the rural home performs, much more 
completely, all the functions described in the previous sections 
of the chapter than does the city home. The activities and 
lives of rural people center about the home. The father and 
mother are partners in business and even the children partici- 
pate in the farm economic enterprises. The members of the 
country family spend a larger portion of their leisure time 
in the home than do those of the city family. They get a 
comparatively large portion of their education in the home. 
The parental contact is more constant and, therefore, the 
parental influence has opportunity to be much greater than in 
the city home. Farm children more often learn their occupa- 
tional apprenticeships in the home than do city children. Mar- 
riage takes place earlier, and divorces are less frequent, than 
in the city. Children can be taught industry on the farm, 
under the direction of their parents, performing tasks suited to 
their strength, and without the menacing routine and drive of 
the factory. The rural household and house is an individual 
unit, not a tenement or apartment house. It is because of 
these facts, that the farm family life and the farm home are 
tremendously important in rural life, and equally important in 
national and world life. 

If the rural family is narrow and restricted in ideas and 
‘ideals, if it is mercenary, if it lacks art and recreation, if it 
lacks beauty, education, religion, income, sanitation, con- 
veniences, or any of the facilities for physical, mental, or 
cultural life and development, rural life will be handicapped 
even more than would urban life if these things were lacking 
in city homes. For in city life, many other agencies and in- 
stitutions have come to substitute for the home and family, 
in furnishing these things. The standard of living of the rural 
person is either furnished by the family or comes through the 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 189 


family in a much greater degree than it does in the city. Food, 
clothing, shelter, health, education, religion, recreation, and 
social contacts are chiefly furnished in the rural home. 

The Farm Family as an Economic Unit—F arming is prac- 
tically the only occupation in America in which the family 
still operates as an occupational unit. During the handicraft 
stage of production, the family, as a whole, except those mem- 
bers who were too young to assist In any way, formed the work 
unit in all occupations. With the development of the power 
and factory system of production, this system rapidly gave 
way to larger and more shifting labor units. In farming, the 
old household unit of labor is still a going concern, and prob- 
ably will continue to be for many years to come. All members 
of the family assist in the same enterprise, as long as they are 
members of the farm household. The whole manufacturing 
production of the United States is carried on in about 300,000 
plants, and, in many of these, there are men who have business 
interests in more than one plant. Agriculture, on the other 
hand, is carried on by means of something more than 6,000,000 
business units, each generally represented by a farm family. 
This scheme of business enterprise has both its advantages 
and disadvantages. 

The advantages accruing to the members of the farm 
family, to the family as a social institution, and thus to society 
by right of the fact that the farm family is an occupational and 
labor unit, are: 

1. The mother and father are partners in economic interests, 
and so have reciprocal relations and sympathies, which are, to 
a, degree, lost when this is not true. 

2. The children can learn industry without those baneful ef- 
fects which come from child labor under a boss. ‘Tasks can 
be fitted to the age and strength of the child, and any adjust- 
ment made at any time that necessity requires. 

3. The failures and prosperity of the enterprise are under- 
stood by all, and the adjustments to these fluctuations par- 
ticipated in by all. This, in no small way, accounts for the 
ability of the rural standard of living to adjust itself to such 


190 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


severe tests as it is put to in times of crop failure and price de- 
pression. 

4. Children, who later in life follow the occupation of agri- 
culture, learn it from their own parents, whose patience and 
sympathy are valuable. 

5. Sharing work and economic responsibility knits the fam- 
ily more closely in all interests and activities of life. 

The disadvantages of the family unit of labor are: 

1. Children, being valuable labor assets, are sometimes used 
to assist in the farm and household work to the exclusion of 
necessary play opportunities. 

2. They are kept out of school to assist in farm work, and are 
not sent to high school because it is felt that they cannot be 
spared from the necessary labor supply force of the farm. 

3. The mother’s burdens are often altogether too arduous, 
especially when she assists with the field work and farm 
chores in addition to her household duties. 

4. The fact that the economic returns are not definitely set, 
as they are in a wage system, leads the whole family to over- 
work, in order that the economic rewards may be increased. 

5. Children have little or no opportunity to choose and 
learn other occupations, unless they leave home, and so must 
start their apprenticeship in other occupations late in life. 

The Home as a Social Unit.—The existence and significance 
of the farm family as a social unit have already been set forth. 
This fact, too, has its disadvantages, as well as its advantages. 
The advantages are: 

1. The parents really rear their own children on the farm. 
The other institutions, the street and the general neighborhood, 
too nearly rear the children of the city family. The home in- 
fluence is constant and the home environment stable. Both 
parents and all the children eat three meals a day together, 
sit around the fireplace or stove in the winter time, play to- 
gether, work together, and so become a part of each other. 

2. The close association of the members deepens their love 
and regard for one another. 

3. The moral integrity of the farm family is a tradition, and 
the children are reared in these concepts. 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 191 


4. Family relationships and family social ethics are good 
models for most other human relationships. The child in 
the farm home has practical opportunity to learn them. 

The disadvantages of the constant and restricted associa- 
tion are: 

1. The social concepts are cast on a very narrow base. With 
so large a portion of the life of all members of the family 
absorbed in the home, there is little opportunity to meet and 
associate with other persons. 

2. The farm family is often a closed corporation in ideas 
and ideals. It is altruistic, as between its own members, but 
selfish in relation to all others. 

3. The very adherence to strictly family associations leads 
to clannishness, and has led to feuds in those places where the 
isolation 1s pronounced. 

4. The fact that the adjustments within the family are 
constant and personal, has a tendency to level out the person- 
alities of all members of the family group. A child with a 
peculiar temperament, or even a particular talent, is not 
given due consideration. This leveling process probably helps 
to account for the orthodoxy and conservatism of rural persons. 

The Farm Wife and Mother—That the mother is the heart 
of the home is not a mere sentimental statement. It is her 
task in life not only to be the engineer of the household, but 
the constant companion, guardian, and tutor of the children. 
President Kenyon L. Butterfield says: 


Woman’s place in farm life is the severest test that agriculture 
has to face. If farm life cannot give the farm woman opportunity 
for real growth, for something besides drudgery, our rural civiliza- 
tion cannot go on. Nevertheless, the farm woman’s career will 
always be found largely in the home, itself, and she rises or not, 
just as the farm home becomes or fails to become what it ought 
to be.t 


In the farm home, the mother looks out for the consumption 
needs and habits of the members of the family, and acts as 


' Proceedings, Sixth National Country Life Conference, 1923, p. 6, University 
of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 


192 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


personal servant, advisor, and counselor of all. As Miss 
Martha Foote Crow says: 


The woman who is to administer in the farm home must be equal 
to several women. She must be master in the difficult art of cook- 
ery, adapting her means to the welfare of a group of people of all 
ages, and with all kinds of needs. She must be wash woman and 
laundry woman, cleaning and scrub woman. She must know all 
the chemicals to be applied to the cleansing of different kinds of 
metal, cloth, wood, and every sort of surface, painted and un- 
painted. She must be food expert, and textile expert, machine and 
poison expert. Besides all this, she must be teacher, instructor, and 
entertainer, the encyclopedia and gazetteer, a theological and 
philosophical professor. And all these separate functions must do 
their work together within one personality, the administrator, the 
little mother of the home, the companion of the kitchen, the parlor, 
and the bedside. 


In all of this, the mother must retain her capacity to be all 
that a mother should be, the provider of happiness and well- 
being for her children, and, if possible, the optimistic com- 
panion and helpmate of her husband in his tasks. 

Professor Gillette says that farm women produced, in 1909, 
in butter, cheese, eggs, and fowls, farm values that exceeded 
those of the entire wheat crop of the nation by several million 
dollars.” A survey, made in 1919 by the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, of over 10,000 farm homes, covering thir- 
ty-three northern and western states, found that 25 per cent of 
farm women helped with livestock, 24 per cent helped in the 
fields, 56 per cent cared for gardens, 36 per cent helped with the 
milking, and, yet, only 14 per cent had any hired help. Even 
those who did have hired help, had such assistance for an 
average of only three and six-tenths months per year.* In a 
great many sections of the nation, women assist in the field to a 
much greater extent than in the areas covered by this survey. 

*CrowE, M. T., The American Girl, pp. 149-150, Frederick A. Stokes Com- 
pany, 1915. 

*GutueTtE, J. M., Rural Sociology, pp. 371-372, The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1922. 


“Warp, FLorence E., The Farm Woman's Problems, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Department Circular No. 148, November, 1920. 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 193 


That the farm woman is not always contented with farm 
life is not to be wondered at. For, with the important part 
she has to play in family life, she sometimes has little home 
equipment and few conveniences with which to work, and 
little opportunity to build up her own personality by means 
of outside contacts. She lives pretty much within the four 
walls of her own home, the nearest neighbor lives at some 
distance, sometimes miles away, and the institutional and 
service facilities from which she can get help and inspiration 
are miles away. Is it surprising, then, that many farm women 
do not want their daughters to remain on the farm to repeat 
the life they have lived; or that they develop eccentricities, 
sometimes scolding and nagging? The following two tables, 
and “Side lights from The Survey,” are from the report of the 
study of 10,044 farms cited above: 


TABLE 21.—Some HovseHoitp Duties ofr THE FarM WoMAN 


Rooms| Stoves ae rite ds Do Do Uae 
Daily 

Section of cee ae Kero- at avis Mend- ara 

Country Hous Honwies c Whersy! (Dis | sing in : 
Lamps 8 ing 
Num- | Num- P cent- | tance} Per | Per | Hours Per 

ber ber oe age | Feet | cent | cent 

cent cent 


Eastern...... 9.7 Es 5 
Gentralren Ge 1:3 79 68 4] 97 94 6 97 
Western..... 5.3 lek 5 
Countrywide.| 7.8 1.29 | 79 61 39 96 92 6 94 
Number of 

records... ./9,781 |9,224 |9,896 |6,511 |6,708 |9,767 |9,724 |8,001 |9,614 





Farm women love the country and do not want to give up free- 
dom for city life. What they do want is normal living and working 
conditions in the farm home. 

Because of the shortage of help prevalent throughout the country, 
women consider it especially important that modern equipment and 
machinery, so far as possible, do the work which would otherwise 
fall to women. 

The farm woman does not wish to put up with an unsatisfactory 





RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


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THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 195 


today in anticipation of something better tomorrow, or in her old 
age. She feels that she owes it to herself and her family to keep 
informed, attractive, and in harmony with life as years advance. 

Women realize that no amount of scientific arrangement or labor- 
saving appliances will of themselves make a home. Women want 
time salvaged from housekeeping to create the right home at- 
mosphere for their children, and so to enrich their home surround- 
ings that they may gain their ideals of beauty and their tastes for 
books and music not from the shop windows, the movies, the bill- 
boards, or the jazz band, but from the home environment. 

The farm woman knows that there is no one who ean take her 
place as teacher and companion of her children during the early 
impressionable years, and she craves more time for their care. The 
home exists for the child, hence the child’s development should have 
first consideration. 

Farm women want to broaden their outlook and keep up with 
the advancement of their children, not by courses of study but by 
bringing progressive ideas, methods, and facilities into the everyday 
work and recreation of the home environment. 

The farm woman feels her isolation from neighbors, as well as 
from libraries and other means of keeping in touch with outside life. 
“The farmer,” she declares, “deals much with other men. The 
children form associations at school, but we, because of our narrow 
range of duties and distance from neighbors, form the habit of 
staying at home, and, to a greater degree than is commonly sup- 
posed, feel the need of congenial companionship,” ? 


The Farm Child—Child life on the farm varies all the way 
from wholesomeness, buoyancy, and abundant happiness to 
dreary stultification. The child may have the opportunities 
of contact with nature, flowers, birds, open fields, and animals, 
or he may be early put to work at drudgery and robbed of all 
these things. He may have the opportunities of a contented, 
prosperous, happy family circle; or he may be the member 
of a migratory horde, whose chief occupation in life is to 
furnish cheap labor for the beet, cotton, tobacco, and truck 
fields. Anyone, who pictures either of these phases of child 
life on the farm to the neglect of the other, not only is not 
dealing with all the facts in the case, but is doing little to as- 


* Ibid. 


196 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


sist in a complete understanding of rural life, or to help in the 
solution of its social problems. 

The child on the farm is the member of a real family circle. 
Its contacts with its parents, brothers, and sisters are constant, 
and, for the most part, wholesome. Child life in the rural 
districts escapes many of the physical dangers incident to the 
complex and teeming life of the city. It is free from the in- 
fluence of the gambling resort, gangs, slums, and other vicious 
degenerative centers. The child on the farm can have its pets, 
its own playground, its own small work projects, and the range 
of the open fields. It is doubtful whether city children ever 
reach the heights of buoyancy and enthusiasm over their 
particular type of life that many rural children do. The op- 
portunity of the rural child to get the joy of being discoverer, 
explorer, and inventor during childhood is unique in child 
life. The range of the farm is his; the tools, implements, and 
animals are his to use, and observe, and handle. If all these 
things can be given meaning to him, as he experiences contact 
with them, the opportunity for personality development is 
unexcelled elsewhere in life. 

Unhappily, children on the farm are not always given the 
opportunities just described. In the beginning of our agri- 
cultural development it was necessary that every member of 
the family be a part of the work force of the farm, and rural 
folk are slow to change their ways and ideas about the place of 
the child in life, even after such necessity has passed. Further- 
more, many rural families are poor, and the labor and earnings 
of their children are thought to be essential to the economic 
maintenance of the family. The result is that there is a real 
child-labor problem on the farm, with its incidence of ill 
health, lack of school training, absence of play, and, in some 
instances, almost complete restriction or absence of whole- 
some childhood opportunities. 

Agriculture employs three-fifths of the million child laborers 
of the United States. Over 650,000 children, under ten years 
of age, work in agriculture; 63,900 of them ‘“‘work out,’ and 
are therefore not under the absolute guidance and direction 
of their parents. Much of child employment on the farm 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 197 


is not bad, but, as Ruth McIntire asks, so any one will ques- 
tion whether it is “good” for children of five years old and 
up, to be treated as “regulars workers” in the cotton field 
during the school term, or for a ten-year-old girl in the 
beet fields to handle a total weight of several tons daily. 
In Texas, local newspapers tell of cotton-picking contests 
among boys five years old. One youngster picked 2,002 
pounds between August 29 and November 2, his best day’s 
work being 81 pounds. The parents of another boy of the 
same age boasted that he had averaged 50 pounds a day dur- 
ing the season. Over 1,000 children were absent from school 
during all of September and October in the Philadelphia 
school district alone, because they were working in the adja- 
cent cranberry bogs of New Jersey.” 

The number of children engaged in agricultural pursuits has 
increased steadily for several decades. Between 1880 and 
1900, the number very nearly doubled, and, between 1900 and 
1910, increased approximately one-half. Between 1910 and 
1920, the seeming decrease is probably accounted for by the 
fact that the census was taken in January, which is a slack 
season in farm work. 

The baneful effects of agricultural child labor le chiefly in 
three things: retardation in school; bad health and physical 
development; and the breaking up of normal home life. Cot- 
ton picking, tobacco “suckering” and “worming,” ‘‘weeding,” 
“hoeing,’ and “pulling” in the beet fields, and on the truck 
farms, all throw the body out of normal posture. In many of 
these processes, the child is not in an upright position during 
the whole day. In weeding, he often crawls on his hands and 
knees for hours at a time. In hoeing, the shoulders are bent 
in and forward, and the head is continuously bent downward. 
Migratory laborers often live in badly crowded shacks, or 
even tents, and under the worst of sanitary conditions. The 
agricultural work day is always long, and the pace is usually 
set by older people in the gang. 


41McIntire, Rutu, Children in Agriculture, p. 3. Pamphlet issued by 
National Child Labor Committee, New York, 1920. 

? Child Labor Facts, p. 11, Published by National Child Labor Committee, 
New York, 1924, 


198 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


In a study of Child Labor on Maryland Truck Farms, made 
by the Federal Children’s Bureau, it was found that in one 
community, where 218 white and 322 negro children, under 
sixteen years of age, were working, 8.7 per cent of the colored 
children were under eight years of age, and 28.5 per cent of 
them were under ten years of age. Over 7 per cent of the 
children under these ages were working over eight hours 
per day, some of them as many as fourteen hours per day. 
These children were almost universally retarded in school 
studies, due to absence from school for work in the fields. 
The white children under ten years of age were 10.5 per cent 
behind, and those fifteen years of age, 37.3 per cent behind. 
Over 22 per cent of them had. missed twenty or more days of 
schooling during that year (1921), 3.8 per cent had missed 
eighty or more days. Twenty days is equal to exactly one 
month’s school, and eighty days equal to four months’ school. 
In this community, were 268 families, including, approxi- 
mately, 550 children, under sixteen years of age, who were 
migrants, moving from one “camp” to another, living in 
“shanties.” In another community, studied in the same sur- 
vey, similar conditions were revealed. These 840 child 
laborers, under sixteen years of age, were studied: 78 per cent 
of them were under fourteen years of age, and 15 per cent 
under eight years of age. Over 63 per cent of these children 
had stayed out of school to assist in the farm work. Practi- 
cally all of them were retarded in school studies. Over 13 per 
cent of the white children and over 33 per cent of the negro 
children were back more than three years in school training. 
The white children over fourteen years of age were retarded 
over three years in 33.6 per cent of the cases, and the negro 
children in 55.3 per cent of the cases.? 

Studies made by the National Child Labor Committee in 
Michigan, Colorado, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and 
West Virginia, and numerous rural surveys made by different 
state agricultural colleges prove these conditions not to be 
exceptional in those areas where gang labor is used in cultivat- 


‘CHANNING, Atice, Child Labor on Maryland Truck Farms, Bureau Publi- 
cation No, 123, United States Department of Labor, Children’s Bureau, 1923, 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 199 


ing and harvesting farm crops. All of them, as well as the 
United States census, show that poor school attendance, 1l- 
literacy, short school terms, and poor enforcement of com- 
pulsory school laws are most prevalent in those areas where 
agricultural child labor is most prevalent. 

The child is the center of the home, and the chief concern 
of the home in rural life, as everywhere. Any condition of the 
home, or of rural life, which is menacing the welfare of chil- 
dren, is menacing or handicapping the rural home in its great- 
est function. The following extract, from the letter of a farm 
girl, states the blue side of farm home life. 


There exist, on many farms, conditions which make life there 
almost unbearable, to young people particularly. One of them is 
the lack of congenial companionship; which may be due to lack of 
material, or to the thoughtfulness of parents, which make it impos- 
sible for the young people to have their friends come to their homes. 
Then, in many farm homes, there is a woeful lack of books, maga- 
zines, and papers of the best sort; again due to the lack of educa- 
tion or of interest on the part of the parents. So, also, with pic- 
tures, music, and recreation. But perhaps greater than any other, 
excepting perhaps the first named, is the dull, weary succession of 
duties following each other, day in and day out, without rest or 
respite, and without any or with few of the modern conveniences to 
lighten the work. 


This section ought not to be concluded without again calling 
attention to the potentialities of the farm home for the normal 
development of child life. The following recipe, for offering 
children on the farm the real and potential opportunities of 
rural life, is given by Mrs. Ruby Green Smith of the New York 
State College of Agriculture Extension Service. It reads: 


_A recipe for preserving the most important crop on the farm, 
the children.—Take one large grassy field. Add several children 
and a few puppies. Mix the children and the puppies together, 
stirring constantly. Sprinkle the field with daisies. Add a bab- 
bling brook and some pebbles. Pour the brook over the pebbles. 


1Crown, M. F., The American Girl, p. 79, Frederick A. Stokes Company, 
1915. 


200 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Spread over all a deep, blue sky, and bake in the hot sun. When 
thoroughly wet and brown, remove and set in the bathtub to cool.t 


THE FARM HOUSE AND HOME CONVENIENCES 


The Farm House.—While the statement, “the house does 
not make the home,” is of course true, it 1s just as true 
that home life cannot be what it ought to be if the house is a 
continual handicap to proper organization, to house work, and 
the self-respect of those who live in it. The farm house con- 
stitutes almost the total environment of half the farm popula- 
tion, the farm women and small children all the time, and 
for all the farm population part of the time. Its size, ar- 
rangement, age, organization; and looks are important. Prob- 
ably the weakest spot in the standard of living of the farm 
family, so far as the standard is measured in terms of physical 
values, is the farm residence. In a survey of 306 farm families 
in a well-to-do rural Missouri community, the writer found 
that the average age of the farm house was over twenty years. 
Since the timewhen most of these houses were built, practically 
all of the modern home conveniences have been made avail- 
able. These houses are not equipped for the installation of the 
conveniences, and this fact is, in a small way, responsible for 
their absence. From a study of 1,014 typical farm families in 
North Carolina, facts were discovered which led to a ealeula- 
tion that 6,000 farm families in this one state are living in one- 
room houses, and 42,000 rural families are living in two-room 
houses.” 

In sections of the nation which are or were one time tim- 
bered, thousands of farm families are yet living in log houses, 
and, in the western prairie states, many farm families are yet 
living in sod houses. There is no way of knowing, but it is 
probable that, could all the old, small, and poor rural houses of 
the nation be brought together, they would constitute slums 


* Proceedings, Sixth National Country Life Conference, p. 31, University of 
Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1923. 

* Taytor, Cart C. and ZIMMERMAN, C. C., Economic and Social Condition of 
North Carolina Farmers, Bureau of Economic and Social Research, North 
Carolina State College, Raleigh, North Carolina. 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 201 


equal to those of the combined great city slums of the nation. 
It may be true that, because the farm woman is her own house- 
keeper, it 1s not best for her to have an elaborate house to 
care for, but it is also true that few people live in poor houses 
who can afford good ones, and that the house in which a family 
lives is a fairly good index to the whole standard of living. 

The housing problem in the country is considerably dif- 
ferent from what it is in the city. In the city, the chief cause 
of bad housing is the existence of tenements. Millions of 
families live in houses owned by someone else. Ground space 
is at a premium, and overcrowding results from the high cost 
of land, and the desire, almost necessity, of the members of 
the family to be near the industrial centers where they work. 
In the rural districts, ample ground space is almost universally 
available. A large per cent of the families own their 
own residences, and each dwelling constitutes an individual 
unit to itself. Each rural farm dwelling can and should, there- 
fore, have distinctive features of its own. It should be fitted 
to its natural surroundings, should fit the topography and 
landscapes, and should be the high point in the whole set of 
farm buildings. Such is not always the case. As one Missouri 
farm woman remarked to the writer, “A new barn will build 
a new house, but a new house will not help in any way to 
build a new barn.” The farm house, however, in addition 
to being the eating and sleeping place for members of the 
farm family, is the work shop of the farm woman, the play- 
house of the children, and the business office of the farm man. 
Each of these things should be adequately provided for in its 
plan and construction. In thousands of farm houses, the 
kitchen is also the dining room, the dining room also the living 
room and parlor, and the living rooms often also the bed- 
rooms. 

An adequate farm house should be equipped with a spacious 
kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a parlor or association 
room, ample bedrooms for the convenience and privacy of the 
different members of the family, and an office for the farm 
man. 

The farm kitchen is not merely a place where the farm 


202 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


woman cooks the meals for the family. In it she must do 
the butter making, the canning, often the washing and iron- 
ing, and work up the family meat supply. It must therefore 
be larger than the ideal city kitchen. Of course, if possible, 
a separate room should be provided for these general labors, 
and the housewife should have a sewing room where she can do 
the still prevailing family tailoring and dressmaking. An ample 
pantry or basement is also a necessity in the farm home, be- 
cause of the large supplies of food that must be stored for 
winter use. As a matter of fact, there is every reason why the 
farm house, in space and equipment, should be superior to the 
city house. 

Regulation housing standards require one-and-a-half rooms 
per individual resident. In some cases, and for convenience’s 
sake, it may be desirable to place the family dining table in 
the ample kitchen, combine the dining room and living room, 
or combine the living room and parlor. The facts, however, 
that the farm man should have office space in the house, that 
the children ought to have play space, and that family enter- 
taining in the home is much more prevalent in the country 
than in the city would sufficiently offset these suggested com- 
binations to make the regulation housing standards apply to 
the rural house. Practically every rural survey yet made in 
any part of the nation reveals the fact that these conditions 
do not prevail. 

The Farm House Yard.—The ground surrounding the farm 
house, because of its ample space, offers peculiar advantages 
for making the farm home attractive. This feature is dis- 
cussed in greater detail in Chap. XVII, on Rural Art. The 
old, New England colonial house, and the Southern plantation 
house and yard were in many ways ideal, though usually 
larger than the average farm family requires. Planting is easy 
in the rural districts. The farm house yard should have plenty 
of shade trees, a grassy lawn, clump planting about the foun- 
dation and corners of the house, shrubs in the front, and a 
flower garden to the side or back. Miss Atkinson makes the 
point that the city house usually opens only on the street, but 
that the farm house opens to the side, or back, where the 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 203 


various out houses, well, and garden are located, and where 
the farm men go to and from the barn and fields. It is neces- 
sary, therefore, if the farm house is to be attractive to those 
who live and work there as well as those who pass by, that its 
surrounding grounds and buildings must all be taken into con- 
sideration in the plan and construction. 

In addition to the points of attractiveness and convenience, 
the point of sanitation is important at the farm house. The 
city home is furnished its water, sewage, and food facilities by 
agencies outside itself. On the farm, all these things are pro- 
vided at home. The location of the farm house in relation 
to the drainage from the animal and poultry yards; the screen- 
ing from flies; the location of the privy; the disposal of gar- 
bage, sewage, and sludge; and the facilities for caring for milk 
and butter must all be provided in the arrangement, location, 
and construction of the farm house. These items are discussed 
in Chap. XV, on Rural Health and Sanitation. 

Household Conveniences——Home conveniences are even 
more important than the house to the farm woman and the 
daughters who help her do the housework. Overwork is the 
greatest menace to the adequacy of a housewife as a mother. 
Drudgery is one of the chief causes of discontent among the 
farm girls. It is the conviction of students of rural life, that 
much of the overwork and drudgery could be relieved if the 
same solicitude were felt for the fatigue of the woman on the 
farm that is felt for the man, and if anything like the same 
amount of money were expended in labor-saving devices that 
is spent for such things to carry on farm work. A farmer, who 
would not think of harvesting his wheat with a cradle, shelling 
his corn by hand, or even pumping his water by hand allows 
his wife to use the washboard, the coal cook stove, and the old 
well without a thought of the waste that is taking place by 
such labor-consuming tools. The farm man should not be 
held totally responsible for these conditions. He is but a part 
of the whole community, or even nation, which is placing 
money values above human values. The labor-saving de- 


* ArkInNson, Mary M., The Woman on The Farm, Chap. III, The Century 
Co., New York, 1924, 


204 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


vices on the farm lessen the cost in hired-man hire and horse 
power, and make it possible for the farmer to farm a larger 
acreage and cultivate his land better. In the case of the farm 
woman’s work, the gain would not so often be in dollars and 
cents, but in increased child care, home beautification, and 
self-improvement. These are not so obvious or so easily 
measured, and thus are overlooked. If, and when, these things 
are noticed, the farmer takes the lead in providing home con- 
venience and labor-saving devices, and lessens the woman’s 
part of the field work and chores, he seldom finds it objected 
to by any other members of the family. 

The survey of 10,044 farm families of the Northern and 
Western states shows that the great majority of farm women 
do their work with a very meager supply of labor-saving de- 
vices. The table on the following page sets forth the facts 
discovered in the survey.’ 

The records of facts presented in this table are probably 
above the average for these states as a whole, for 55,000 ques- 
tionnaires were mailed out, and probably only the more en- 
lightened and progressive farm families reported data. Cer- 
tainly the average is much higher in these cases than it is for 
the entire nation. In asimilar survey of 1,014 farm families in 
North Carolina, it was found that 96.9 per cent of all the farm 
homes were heated by fireplaces, 98.6 per cent were lighted by 
lamps, 99.4 per cent of the washing was done by washboards, 
and that 19.8 per cent of the homes had no sewing machines. 
Not a single farm home had a vacuum cleaner, 99 per cent 
had no kitchen sinks, 98.1 per cent had no refrigerator, and 
75.4 per cent had no carpets on the floors. Less than 1 per cent 
had running water in their homes, and none of them had 
power machines of any kind.? 

It is apparent that the farm home, the bulwark of farm life 
and unique in modern society for its integrity and unity, is 
laboring under handicaps. If to the facts depicted in this 

Warp, Fuorence E., The Farm Woman’s Problems, p. 9, United States 
Department of Agriculture, Department Circular No. 148, November, 1920. 

*'Taytor, Cart C., and ZIMMERMAN, C. C., Economic and Social Conditions 


of North Carolina Farmers, pp. 43-46, Bureau of Economic and Social Re- 
search, North Carolina State College, Raleigh, North Carolina. 


205 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 





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206 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


chapter, those facts be added which are presented in the 
chapters on health, education, recreation, art, and stand- 
ard of living, it will make a black picture. Nor is the black- 
ness of this picture to be denied. The day has passed, when 
the rural homes of the nation are so isolated and unacquainted 
with the modern facilities of city life that they are complacent 
under the conditions we have described. Happily, there are 
agencies and institutions at work on the task of remedying 
these conditions, and conserving for the nation the wholesome- 
ness and happiness which the half of our national population 
deserves and must have. 

Methods and Agencies of Rural Home Improvement.—Prob- 
ably greatest among the agencies working for the improvement 
of home life on the farms of America is the Home Demonstra- 
tion work. The Smith-Lever Act provides for “the extension 
of knowledge in agriculture and domestic science in rural com- 
munities of the United States.” This Act was passed in 1914. 
By 1918-1919, there were nearly 2,000 home demonstration 
agents at work in as many separate counties in the United 
States. In 1922, alone, more than 250,000 improved practices 
among rural women, and 300,000 improved practices among 
rural girls were reported as due to home demonstration work. 
Miss Grace Frysinger of the Washington office of this work 
sets forth the work of the home agents in the following terms. 


The first item for consideration in home demonstration work is 
its permanent contribution to the rural home. 

Second, the scope of the information which may be given is as 
intimate as the problem of individual home making, and as broad 
as the field of civic improvement. 

Third, home demonstration work is so administered that even 
with but one home demonstration agent resident in the county, the 
maximum number of families in any county may receive the assist- 
ance desired in bettering home and community conditions. 


In addition to the work of the resident agents, the colleges 
of agriculture of the various states are regularly printing and 
distributing among farm families bulletins on, “Beautifying 


* Proceedings, Sixth National Country Life Conference, 1923, pp. 143-144, 
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 207 


the Home Grounds,” “Lighting Homes by Private Electric 
Plants,” “Modern Conveniences for the Farm Houses,” “The 
Step-saving Kitchen,” and bulletins under similar titles. The 
United States Department of Agriculture maintains a Depart- 
ment of Home Economic Research and now, under the Purnell 
Act, the various state experiment stations may do the same 
thing. 

A criticism might be offered of the home demonstration 
agency that it has spent relatively too large a per cent of its 
time on production, marketing, and the individual farm 
woman’s millinery, cooking, and dressmaking problems, and 
relatively too small a per cent of its time on the family as a 
social institution. Some further statements from Miss Fry- 
singer would indicate, however, that the ideals of the future 
are to change this comparative emphasis. She says: 


We must direct the attention of rural people toward determining 
positive standards of health for every member of the family and 
the factors contributing to such a standard of well-being. 

We must help them to visualize home grounds, attractive and 
well-cared for, the inside of which are efficiently arranged, com- 
fortable, and artistically satisfying, and in which there is every 
incentive and opportunity for mental, social, and spiritual de- 
velopment. 

We must help parents to realize that the matter of greatest im- 
portance in their lives is to develop their boys and girls, giving to 
them sound bodies, efficient minds, spiritual consciousness, and an 
appreciation of the cultural side of life, as well as ability to make 
a living. We must try to interest parents in intelligently preparing 
to meet their responsibility through studying methods of child care, 
child training, and construction discipline. 

There must be special stress on the need of greater spiritual 
consciousness and cultural development for all members of the rural 
family. We must urge that an environment of good household 
decoration, good music, good reading, and constructive family con- 
versation is as definite a part of the responsibility of the parents 
as is the provision of food, clothing, and shelter. 

We must help farm people to see efficient farming and efficient 
housekeeping as the necessary framework for a satisfying family 


208 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


life, and that rest, recreation, and cultural development are as 
necessary for rural, as for urban, family life. 

We must help farm people to find enough leisure for true recrea- 
tion and for family companionship and amusement, as well as for 
neighborhood family gatherings for songs, games, and other forms 
of social intercourse.1 


These ideals almost run the gamut of necessary ideals for 
the rural home. If this one powerful agency, with its thou- 
sands of trained women working throughout the nation in the 
homes, in boys’ and girls’ club work, and in the communities, 
will follow the ideals set forth by Miss Frysinger, rather than 
spend too much time trying to help solve the production and 
economic problem on the farm, it will wield an influence in 
rural life not equaled by any other force. While the city has 
many facilities that the country does not have by way of insti- 
tutional services, there is no agency with magnitude, power, 
and training equal to the home demonstration work which is 
dedicated solely to the cause of helping the country home. 

There is not a defect or shortcoming of the rural home that 
does not have dedicated to its elimination one or many 
agencies. For improvement of general family life there is the 
home demonstration work. For child life there is the Chil- 
dren’s Bureau of the United States Department of Labor, The 
National Child Labor Committee, Boys’ and Girls’ Club Work, 
the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A., the Boy Scouts, and Camp 
Fire Girls. For the rural house and its surroundings there 
are the Farm Engineers and Landscape Architects of the state 
colleges of agriculture. For the home conveniences there are 
these same farm engineers and home demonstration agents. 
For the education of the boys and girls in homemaking there 
is the coming of agriculture and domestic science in the rural 
schools. In addition to these are the Grange, the Farm 
Bureau, and similar agencies and organizations that include 
in their programs aids for the entire farm family. The state 
governments are passing and enforcing laws for the improve- 
ment of rural health, sanitation, and education. All of these 

*Ibid, pp. 144-145. 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 209 


activities in due time will have their effect in making rural 
home life vastly different from what we have depicted it to 
be at the present time. The federal government is not only 
supplying money and agencies for assisting, but is now making 
it the chief object of its reclamation service to establish worthy 
and efficient rural homes in new areas under development. 

Ideals—lIt should not be assumed from this dark picture 
of defects and shortcomings in the farm home, that there is 
no idealism in rural life nor knowledge of its exceptional family 
opportunities. The following excerpts from letters of farm 
women prove quite the contrary to be true in some cases, and 
these cases in the country are myriad. The wife of a wheat 
farmer in Illinois says: 


I actually feel sorry for the woman who doesn’t get a chance to 
help her husband once in a while. 

A young, college bred woman in New York contends, I prefer 
living on a farm. My husband is such a help in the care, manage- 
ment, and discipline of the children. He takes the children all 
over the farm with him and lets them ride in a basket, or box, or 
seat securely fastened on rake, cultivator, or plow. 


At the National Agricultural Conference called by the 
President of the United States in January 1922, the farm 
women said clearly: 


We stand for the conservation of the American farm home, where 
husband and wife are partners, and where children have the oppor- 
tunity to develop in wholesome fashion.! 


A farm magazine, The Farmer’s Wife, conducted a nation- 
wide, farm woman’s letter-writing contest on “Do farm 
mothers believe in farming? Have they enough faith in farm- 
ing to want their daughters to marry farmers?” More than 
7,000 farm women wrote letters answering these two questions. 


*Quotations from, The Advantages of Farm Life, a Study by Corre- 
spondence and Interview with Eight Thousand Farm Women; Digest of an 
unpublished manuscript, obtainable from the Division of Population and Farm 
Life, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agri- 
culture, Washington, D. C. 


210 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Ninety-four per cent of them answered, “Yes.” One of the 
letters follows: 


I’m going to stop a bit, dear farm woman, in the midst of my 
work, for wee daughter is having her nap and it’s a good opportunity 
to tell you why I wish the best of all good things for our pride and 
hope and joy. 

It is because I have known the happiness which comes of service, 
that I want my daughter to know it, too. Is there any greater 
joy, I wonder, than that of a hard task well done? When I have 
hurried with my work that I might do something extra outside, 
worked until I felt old and cross and tired, and the best man in all 
the world has said, “I certainly couldn’t farm without you”, oh, 
how I’ve thrilled. It becomes a little song in my heart and lightens 
my work for days. And even if he weren’t the best man, I think I 
could be quite happy with the thought, “I’ve earned my way today; 
I’m helping with the most essential job on earth; I’m working for 
a better future.” 

Then there is the beauty of family life on the farm. Instead of 
seeing my son rushing off with the fellows, my daughter going out 
for a good time that J’ll know nothing about, and the younger 
children coaxing to go to the movies, we’ll be spending our evenings 
together with our music, books, and mutual friends, or going out to 
some amusement together. 

And last but not least, of the good things I desire for this daugh- 
ter o’mine, are peace, a love of nature, and time for quiet, happy 
thoughts. Can they be gotten by any other class of working people 
as easily as by the woman on the farm? She doesn’t rush to finish 
her work that she may spend a day bargain hunting—a day of 
hurry, worry, and “me-first” thoughts; of spending money she 
shouldn’t spend, and gazing at things she wants and can’t have. 
No; she may sit on the front porch a bit, while she sews, or mends, 
or reads. She will see and feel and hear the beauty of the world— 
her world—and with an unruffled spirit she will go in and get supper 
for her hungry brood. 

And so, folks, I want my daughter to marry a farmer, a good 
man, upright, steadfast, and true, with visions of the farm-life-to-be 
in his heart. Then, hand in hand, they can work to make their 
dreams come true, and she will know the happiness I have known. 
I could not ask for more.! 


‘For further information on the contest write, The Farmer’s Wife, St. Paul, 
Minnesota. 


THE RURAL HOME AND FAMILY 211 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIAL 


“The Rural Home,” Proceedings, Sixth National Country Life Conference, 
1923, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 

Atkinson, Mary M., The Woman on the Farm, The Century Co., New York, 
1924. 

Cropper, E. N., Rural Child Welfare, The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1922. 

Woop, Fiorence E., “The Farm Woman’s Problems,’ United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture Department Circular No. 148, 1920, United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Reese, Mapce J., “Farm Home Conveniences,” Farmer’s Bulletin No. 927, 
1918, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Waueu, F. A., Rural Improvement, Orange-Judd Co., New York, 1914. 


CHAPTER X 
THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 
THE FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH IN RURAL SOCIETY 


The Church’s Division of Society’s Labor-——The church is 
one of the great social institutions. In the field of definitely 
organized and thoroughly institutionalized life of society, it 
divides the field with the school, the home, government, and 
business. No other functions of life than those served by 
these five major social institutions have thus far so universally 
and persistently demonstrated their capacities to crystallize 
their activities into definite social organizations. Recreational 
and health activities seem to be tending toward definite 
institutionalization, but there is not yet a clearly defined recog- 
nition of a specific type of recreation or health organization 
which is sufficiently universal to be classed as one of the great 
institutions. Only education, government, family, business, 
and religion are found everywhere in American society defin- 
itely organized according to social patterns. Wherever one of 
these great and universal forms of social organization is found, 
we can be assured that either it now has, or in the past did 
have, some function to perform which was deemed by the 
masses to be essential and desirable. Furthermore, we can be 
assured that the need or function which gave origin and form 
to any particular institution could not, or was not, being 
adequately supplied or performed by any other institution 
at that time. The church must now have, or, at one time did 
have, a clearly defined part of society’s labor to perform, else 
we would have no churches. 

Since these five great social institutions are universal, the 
church must find its place in team work and cooperation with 
the other four. Professor Lindeman makes the point that 
institutions do not grow by accretion but by segregation and 

212 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 213 


specialization.. The same process that develops specialization 
between industries and divisions of labor within industries de- 
velops and sets the functions and programs of institutions. 
Economy in the larger social life, just as in industry, is devel- 
oped by each part of the organization doing definitely, and ex- 
peditiously, its share of the total task. The church has its 
division of society’s task. It must perform it or the task will be 
done poorly or not be done at all. Furthermore, it must per- 
sistently and intelligently perform its share of the task or give 
way to some new institution that will do so. 

The church has its share in the task of assuring to all in- 
dividuals and communities a well-rounded and adequate stand- 
ard of living. A standard of living consists of those things 
which are essential to living and to participation in the normal 
life of the society of which one is a part. In its universal 
terms the standard of living means food, clothing, shelter, 
health, “education, religion, recreation, and friends. ‘The de- 
mand, on the part ‘of an individual or of a community, for 
each and all of these things is desirable and legitimate. If the 
church fails to provide for individuals and communities, its 
share of the standard of living for individual, and community 
life is just that much short of a normal standard. If it seeks 
to thwart the natural and legitimate desire for any one of these 
things, it places itself in maladjustment with normal life. 
In such cases it not only thwarts and hampers the life of 
individuals and communities, but, in seeking to perform its 
own function, it flies in the face of the wind. It is the func- 
tion of the church not only to play its own part well but to play 
team work, 

Religion and the Rural Church—No fallacy is more uni- 
versal in common thinking than to assume that the presence of, 
churches and church organizations is a sure index to religion. 
There can be as great a difference between church activities 
and religion as there is between physical activities and health 
or business activities and profits. Nevertheless, it is for the 
most part correctly assumed that the church is the outstand- 

1TLinpeman, E. C., The Community Chap. VII, The Association Press, 1921. 


214 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


ing agency of religion in the average rural community. Even 
so, the difference between the church and religion should be 
kept in mind. The function of religion is to help interpret 
individual and world life; to expand into the life of the world 
the emotions and feelings which are found valuable in indi- 
vidual life, and to teach men how to invest their lives in 
keeping with the ultimate purposes of all life. Religion al- 
ways contains an ultimate aspiration. It always has some 
set program by which it believes it can attain that aspiration, 
and it has an undying and enthusiastic loyalty to that aspira- 
tion and program. The Christian religion measures its aspira- 
tion and times its program by that set of ethical concepts and 
those ultimate purposes given emphasis by Jesus and his in- 
terpreters. 

The church, as one of the social institutions, is man made, 
as all institutions are. It has religious functions to perform. 
It grew into its present institutional form and activities by 
attempting to perform those functions in persistent and 
systematic ways. It has brought people together to talk over 
their aspirations and to develop and emphasize their ultimate 
life purposes. It has naturally evolved programs by means 
of which it thinks these aspirations and purposes can be 
reached. It has built buildings as meeting places. A church 
building in which people do not meet; a religion that does 
not discuss and develop aspirations and ultimate purposes of 
of life; a program that does not seek to develop the ideals of 
Christianity in the lives of all the people may still constitute 
a church, but it is not an agency of Christian religion. The 
problem of the rural church is not to build more churches, nor 
to organize more church congregations, nor even, altogether, 
to have more meetings and more preachings. The problem of 
the rural church, as is the problem of all institutions, is to keep 
itself alive to the best thought of its time, to adjust its pro- 
gram, enlarge its vision, develop human values and deepen 
and enlighten men’s convictions concerning those things by 
which men should measure life’s activities and by means of 
which they can attain the ultimate purposes of life. 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 215 


THE STATUS OF THE RURAL CHURCH 


The Decline of the Rural Church Membership—tThe in- 
fluence of the church cannot be absolutely measured sta- 
tistically. Since, however, some statistical facts are good 
indices, we shall attempt to measure the status of the rural 
church by three types of statistical facts viz., (1) church 
membership, (2) church attendance, and (8) church organ- 
izations. 

The reports of the religious census of the United States 
do not completely differentiate urban and rural statistics. 
Any measure of church growth or decline obtained from these 
data will, therefore, have to be for the country as a whole 
and for large cities. The following table gives the facts for 
church organization and church membership but not for 
church attendance:? 


TABLE 24.—CHURCH ORGANIZATION AND MEMBERSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES 


Church Organi- 





Church Membership | National? Per Cent 


zations of National 
Popula- 
i) ad Cae | aoa lat ids Gd a Ld GRE LODE en Pop ulation 
Gay in Church 
Total P er cent Total Per cent increase Member- 
increase increase ship 
TSO0 ay 4 165,151 pha 21,699,432 Da eaegest 34.9 
L906 Peas. 212,230 28.5 35,068,058 61.6 36.3 40.9 
T9LBIED hs 227 , 487 (hy. 41,926,845 19.6 18.9 41.1 





These data make it apparent that there has been a persistent 
gain in church membership in the national population and that 
the churches of America are growing steadily in both number 
of organizations and church membership. 

The following table gives the best facts that can be gleaned 
from the Census religious survey concerning city data:® 


* Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, Religious Bodies, 1916, Vol. 
1, pp. 24-30. 

* Population for 1906 and 1916 was calculated as three-fifths of the increase 
between 1900-1910 and 1910-1920. 

gobo teh ok ay tty 


216 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


TABLE 25.—SHOWING MEMBERSHIP IN City AND Non-Citry Popunation! 





1890 1906 1916 


In Cities ; In Cities : In Cities : 
Group Outside Outside Outside 
of 25,000 of These of 25,000 of These of 25,000 of These 


Ae baa Principal] *°P ula- Principal fi opula- | Principal 
a COTES We ees ty Cltied’s Tt nal Cities 
Over Over Over 


Per cent of National 

population........ 222 77.8 27 .5 42.5 32.7 67.3 
Per cent of National 

church membership.| 26.9 73.1 S240 67.3 36.5 63.5 
Excess or deficiency of 

church percentage to 

population percent- 

FS Cag cept p eet a a a ebihl ek 3.3 4.7 BZ 5.2 3.8 3.8 
Difference between 

city excess and non- 

city deficiency..... 8.0 10.4 7.6 


This table shows that it is in towns of less than 25,000 popu- 
lation, or in the open country that the deficiency in church 
membership exists. Further data, presented from a different 
angle, will lead us to the conclusion that this deficiency is most 
often in the open country. 

Gill made a careful study of church membership over a 
period of twenty years in Winsor and Tompkins counties, 
New York. Both of these are dominantly agricultural counties, 
with the exception of the city of Ithaca in Tompkins County. 
He found that church membership increased but 4.28 per cent 
in Winsor County and but 2.0 per cent in Tompkins County 
in the twenty-year period.? The total increase for the nation 
over the sixteen-year period reported in the census was 93.2 
per cent and for the cities of 25,000 population and over was 
37.1 per cent. 

A compilation of data gathered in a number of surveys of 


* Ibid, p. 119. 


“Guu, C. O., and Pincuor, G., The Country Church, 73, 1 
Macmillan Company, New York, 1913. y , pp. 73, 164. The 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 217 


rural churches scattered widely over the nation shows a more 
marked deficiency in rural church membership. 


TABLE 26.—PER CENT oF POPULATION WHO ARE CHURCH MEMBERS IN RURAL 


Districts } 

State Township or County Per Cent 
Missouri: ientoee.s. Boone County, Columbia Community........ 48.9 
LOWS ere ety ote COOLOWDSDID Sea ect eke, ee ee els 44.0 
Pennsylvania...... Wight COUBUIEB Umer rier ou loli Libs ee 42.0 
Miicinnise rs siete. BOONE ACOUTIEY cree isles tee cero eo ats 41.6 
TOWRA eree eta tere OE TO WAIST teense eta itera) «inate cla Bis pcre ttt 39.0 
Tennessee......... CAD COT COUN EY ter tala orrisrns ole ar atelcalay aie tote lade 38.0 
Marylandsy ck Jo. Non tzOIery COUDLY ec ua ee fee eds 35.0 
MinsOUTit nop oow Sikeston Community Scott and New Madrid 

COU LIES ree ee ckalvantieas eatin s Wratten igre, 33.7 
Obi yoga trey. Green @ oun tyme ate weer rool gu WL 33.5 
Kentucky ei: Webster Count uaeenihire crea tatu woameyy anni teus 32.0 
COHTGT Ce lierare thet turs Four counties, northwestern Ohio............ 31.0 
Lm Ois ess UP ee i PLeCHyCOUILLLCS Mer kel eerie Cat ateyd Sahat de im 9) & 31.0 
CLO ae arena Drake County, thirteen townships........... 29.4 
UII tenets pene te seas Butler County, ten townships............... ya in) 
Indians Psu Ee INUSTena LS OUlLUVenn eee Ue ny tet mk 0a) 27.4 
Bey ag Sse Ae nih eas ane Six counties, southwestern Ohio............. 22.8 
(Rags i el SL a One townebipseeminie nye as kaa ae hear ak A 22.0 
FGATIBAS ine et sactd tele S BeswiCke@ oun yaw noe nate te ames dae aaa 22.0 
COT d ces! As Montgomery County, nine townships........ 20.2 
WEISSOUITES air arata cots Randolph GWountviguca iio mi nyu ini Ll usb, Bbnes 19.9 
Walitormia. dy liaek PP lare yO OUmab yang sane mya Cun ayo das daca ad 16.2 
CALTOLNIA Aa 1h 0". Mann and Sonoma Counties................ 13.0 
Washington....... Bend Oreille Countiiaee anni uno tieciive nis 12.0 
IMISSONITI NY ies ove MPeDonsl di Coun tye wy re sen by a arieA ga 10.5 


Here is information gathered in over one hundred different 
counties, townships, or communities in twelve different states. 
In only four cases do the percentages of memberships exceed 
those for the nation. It is very apparent that it is the rural 
church that is deficient in membership. 

If the census data can be taken as indicative, the churches 
of the open country, and of the towns and small cities have 
always been deficient in church membership when compared 
with larger cities. 


*'These data are gathered from surveys made by the Presbyterian Board 
of Home Missions, Ohio Rural Life Survey, Iowa State University, The Inter- 
Church World Survey, and by the author and his students at the Univer- 
sity of Missouri. Some of them include small villages. One includes only 


white population and one does not count either Catholic population or Cath- 
olic church membership. 


218 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


There are other evidences that the rural church is declining. 
C. O. Gill, by means of a study of church registers of forty- 
nine rural churches, discovered that the total church member- 
ship in Winsor County New York had declined 1 per cent in 
twenty years. In Randolph County, Missouri, it was pos- 
sible to get church records for seventeen churches for ten years, 
and of twenty-one churches for five years. The decline was 10 
per cent in ten years and 3.1 per cent for five years. As we 
shall see later, there are certain types of rural churches that 
are almost universally declining. 

In McDonald County, Missouri, a study of church mem- 
bership was made for 1908, 1913, and 1918. The membership 
of twenty-seven churches in this county had declined 4 per 
cent in five years and 9.8 per cent in ten years. All of these 
churches were located in the open country or in small villages. 
Those in the open country declined over 10 per cent in the ten- 
year period. A detailed study of membership loss was made 
in this county. It was found that the country churches added 
more members by accession than did the city churches, but 
the city churches added more by letter or statement from 
other churches. On the other hand, the rural churches lost 
members by letters and because members quit, while the village 
churches lost mostly by death. It is apparent that the open- 
country churches lose members by two means—transfer of 
members to village churches, and through failure to keep the 
membership active. The same survey showed that a small 
percentage of the country church memberships consisted of 
young people. Both village and open-country churches had 
few young people and 1 per cent of the village membership 
consisted of boys and girls between twelve and eighteen years 
of age, while only 13 per cent of the country church membership 
consisted of persons of these ages. In Clermont County, Ohio, 
Vogt found but 16 per cent of the membership under twenty- 
one years of age." In Randolph County, Missouri, 23 per cent 
of members were under twenty-one years of age. The fact 
that 50 per cent of the population of the United States con- 


*Voar, P. L., Introduction to Rural Sociology, pp. 305-306, D. Appleton & 
Company, New York, 1917. 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 219 


sists of persons between the ages of ten and thirty shows 
that the rural church is failing to enlist a due portion of per- 
sons between these ages in its membership. 

Rural Church Attendance——Church attendance is almost 
universally poor in rural churches. As in all churches, of 
course, the names of many persons who are in no sense active 
members are on the roll. There are many reasons why even 
conscientious rural church members are irregular in attendance. 
After surveying over 6,000 rural churches in Ohio, Gill chose 
six churches at random and discovered the following facts 
concerning attendance... This is only 25.7 per cent of the 


TABLE 27.—MEMBERSHIP AND ATTENDANCE 


Members Average Attendance 
125 34 
300 136 
iS 30-40 

150 Less than 30 
300 40 
1,048 270 


certified membership. In Randolph County, Missouri, it was 
found that the attendance was 61 per cent of the church 
membership and about 8 per cent of the population. In Pend 
Oreille County, Washington, the church attendance was over 
100 per cent of the membership but was less than 18 per cent 
of the population. Other surveys indicated the same condition. 
The rural church, in the majority of cases, is not attracting 
the rural population. In McDonald County, Missouri, it was 
found that about 15 per cent of the church membership was 
non-resident and 36 per cent of the resident members were 
not active; this left but 48 per cent of the actual church 
membership as active. 

The Abandonment of Rural Churches.—Certainly nothing 
is more indicative of the failure of an institution than for it to 


*Guu, C. O., and Prncuor, G., Six Thousand Country Churches, p. 9, The 
Macmillan Company. 


220 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


close its doors. If the doors of a church building are closed 
because the membership has moved to another congregation in 
the country or to some town church, there is no tragedy in the 
closing. If the closing of the church doors means the death of 
institutional religion in the community or the loss of active 
church membership, there is tragedy in the closing. Bricker 
calculates, that there are 21,000 closed or abandoned rural 
churches in America.*’ The rural survey made in Illinois by 
the Presbyterian Church calculated that there were 1,600 
abandoned churches in that state outside the city of Chicago. 
It stated further that many of these abandoned churches were 
in communities which were left without any church.” These 
are only calculations but whether the number is 5,000 or 
25,000, the indication is either that there is taking place a 
reorganization of congregations or a straight loss of member- 
ship. Gill located, on the county maps of Ohio, 429 closed or 
abandoned churches. There was but one county in the state 
that did not have one or more rural churches either com- 
pletely abandoned or closed. Sixteen out of the eighty-seven 
counties had ten or more abandoned or closed rural churches. 
One county had twenty-five and another twenty-three of these 
dead rural churches. In one section there were seven abandoned 
churches within a three-mile radius. In a number of single 
townships, there were four and five abandoned or closed 
churches. There has been scarcely a rural survey in the United 
States that has not discovered abandoned and closed churches. 
A study of the information made available by surveys of all 
sections of the nation makes it possible to assert that the 
abandonment is in somewhat direct ratio to the age of the 
settlement. This is not absolutely true, however, for the rural 
churches in the Piedmont section of the nation are not being 
closed or abandoned to any extent, though the civilization is 
old in this section. The abandonment is slight in the West 
and very marked in the Middle West. Everything 4Zoes to 

* Bricker, G. A., The Church in Rural America, p. 41, The Standard Press, 
Cincinnati, 1919. - 

"A Rural Survey in Illinois, Department of Church and Country Life, 


Board of Home Missions, Presbyterian Church in the United States, 156 Fifth 
Ave., New York City. 


LESLIE LAL IID ED NOOR GN ELI LT LENA LLL ATLL Boe ai 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 221 


indicate that the pioneer and the first succeeding generation 
build numerous rural churches, but by the time the third and 
fourth generations of settlement are reached many of the rural 
churches go into decay. The author knows of numerous rural 
church organizations in the Middle West which have run 
through three generations of settlement and have been housed 
in three generations of church buildings, but are now gradually 
falling into a state of decay. He has seen dozens of church 
sites which serve no function today except that which the 
cemetery performs. Two generations ago these churches were 
built; one generation ago they were thriving and serving the 
communities in their own way; today many of them are dead. 
If this sort of thing were common to all church life and organ- 
ization, it might be considered as characteristic of institutional- 
ized religion. It is not true except in the open country and 
the small towns. The abandonment of a few rural churches 
may not in itself be all bad; but to abandon twenty-five 
churches in one county, 500 or 600 in one state, and to have 
the abandonment become universal over the country is a sign 
of rural church confusion, if not of actual religious decay. 


WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE RURAL CHURCH? 


Sectarianism.—The dominant weaknesses of the rural 
church in the order of their importance are probably as fol- 
lows: (1) sectarianism or denominationalism, (2) poorly 
trained preachers, (3) poor church programs, (4) poor church 
equipment; (5)lack of resident pastors, (6) poor support, and 
the inevitable result,“(7) low ‘membership and poor church 
attendance. Gill found sixty-one different sects and denom- 
inations in 1 Ohio. ‘The 1920 Year Book of the churches lists 


204 sects ‘and denominations in the United States.t. The 


presence of half a dozen different sects or denominations in 

one community would destroy the institutional efficiency of 

any movement. The church is no exception to the rule. 
The school has learned the tragic lesson of division into 


1 'WaRBURTON, S. R., Year Book of the Churches, Federated Council of the 
Churches of Christ of America, New York, 1920. 


222 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


small units and is hastening to reorganize for the sake of 
efficiently carrying forward its program. The church has 
given very little evidence of having in the least analyzed its 
dominant weakness. The direct result of sectarianism is the 
division and dissipation of the church program of the com- 
munity. From this division there results a small member- 
ship, division of support, dissipation of church leadership, 
poor and seldom-used buildings, poorly paid and poorly trained 
preachers, lack of resident pastors, and, very often, actual 
conflict between the congregations of the different sects. This 
overchurching of rural communities because of the sectarian 
zeal is not only futile in an attempt at church efficiency but 
is criminal. People who are learning to work with fine co- 
operation in other rural endeavors are handicapping their 
religious programs with silly sentimentalism over sectarianism 
of all kinds. 

Rural Churches too Small in Membership.—The Ohio Rural 
Life Survey showed that churches with less than 100 members 
were failing to prosper. Surveys all over the country conducted 
since that discovery have substantiated this fact. The same 
surveys have universally shown that the church prospers in 
direct ratio to pastoral care. 

The smallness of the church membership and the failure to 
provide churches with resident pastors are both direct results 
of a virulent sectarianism which handicaps the church in 
numbers and in financial aid per congregation. Gull found an 
average of five rural churches per township in Ohio. He found 
that 66 per cent of the rural churches had memberships of 
100 or less, 55 per cent had membership of seventy-five or 
less, and 37 per cent had membership of fifty or less. If Ohio 
had but 1,200 instead of 6,000 rural churches, and had the 
same number of rural church members, she would still have 
an average of one church per township and the average mem- 
bership per church would be five times as much as it is now. 
The average township is not too large an area to be served 
by one church. Thousands of schools are being consolidated 
in areas of this size. Hundreds of thousands of rural people 
are driving farther to reach their particular denominational 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 223 


church than they would be required to drive to reach a cen- 
trally located church. Every observer of rural life has seen 
families drive from the shadow of a church of one denomina- 
tion, and journey five to eight miles to reach a church of their 
particular sectarian choice. The genius of the church is such 
that no such mechanical arrangement as prevails in township 
and school location can universally prevail in its location. 
There is nothing in the genius of the church which so dictates 
that distribution of rural churches as to cause such dissipation 
of religious activity as prevails under the present sectarian 
organization. The same calculation could be made for salaries 
of rural ministers, consolidation of Sunday-school leaders, and 
improvement of church equipment as has been made for mem- 
bership. | 

Poorly Trained Leaders.—There is no blinking the fact that — 
rural ministers are poorly equipped for their task. They are, — 
in the majority of cases, either young ministers serving their 
apprenticeship in rural churches, while looking forward to 
better positions in the city, or they are old preachers who can 
no longer meet the demands of up-to-date city churches. It is 
inevitable that city churches, with their better salaries, larger 
congregations, and more adequate equipment should attract 
the best ministers. Practically no one prepares for the life 
work of a rural minister. Few preacher training institutions 
attempt to offer such training. The rural church, because of 
its low salaries, catches practically all the untrained ministers. 
In Randolph County, Missouri, there were twenty men serving 
rural churches as ministers. Six of these had only a common 
school education; seven had from one to three years’ college 
education; five had A.B. degrees and one an M.A. degree. 
These data are believed to be fairly typical. Of course, the 
training of men who are attempting to minister in the country 
districts varies in both directions. Gill states that the min- 
isters sometimes are actually illiterate. On the other hand, 
some of the denominations require seminary training beyond 
the A.B. degree, and others require their ministers constantly 
to pursue training courses while actually in charge of some 
church. In any case, the church is probably led by more 


224 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


poorly equipped leadership than any of our other great social 
institutions. Certainly, the rural church has the most poorly 
equipped leadership among the churches. 

In McDonald County, Missouri, every one of the five min- 
isters who lived in the open country and gave his full time to 
open country churches was without even grade school educa- 
tion. The same was true of two ministers who lived in villages 
and preached for country churches. The other two country 
preachers had one a common school education and one a 
denominational college education. 

The large majority of preachers are trained in denomina- 
tional colleges. These colleges are generally small, poorly 
equipped, poorly supported, and their faculty so limited that 
the teachers are compelled to carry such heavy teaching 
schedules that they can not do their best. Furthermore, the 
curricula of the denominational colleges are not such as to 
adequately prepare men for the rural ministry. Their aca- 
demic courses are not up to the standard of other institutions 


of higher learning. The preacher training courses consist too 4 


much of Homiletics, Hermeneutics, Exegisis, Church History, 
and Systematic Theology. Consequently men are not trained 
in the social sciences, psychology, and science, much less in 
agriculture. A preacher who is not trained to a fairly thorough 
appreciation of the problems of agriculture need not expect 
to be taken into the council of farmers concerning their major 
economic and social problems. 

The modern opportunities for enlightenment of farmers are 
such as to make many rural dwellers more intelligent concern- 
ing the problems of a modern world than are the rural 
preachers. Because of these facts, they are no longer willing 
to listen to a discussion of threadbare theological subjects or 
to spend their time listening to some one whose judgment, on 
the issues of the day, they cannot trust. The rural minister 
of the past was the best educated man in the community. 
His judgment on civic, economic, and social affairs was de- 
ferred to by his parishioners. Today such is far from the case. 
The rural preacher constitutes one of the dominant weak 
spots of the rural church, because he cannot exercise the in- 


ener 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 225 


tellectual leadership which he should. Lack of training is at 
the bottom of his weakness. 

Poor Church Programs.—The church programs of the rural 
churches are weak. In Ohio, Gill found 4,007 rural churches 
without resident ministers, and 1,599 churches with one-fourth 
time or less of a minister’s preaching hours. No institutional 
program.can be adequate without skilled and constant leader- 
ship. The rural churches of America, in the majority of 
cases, lack leaders. These data could be duplicated in prac- 
tically every state in the Union. The preaching program is 
the dominant program of the rural church and this program 
is not carried on all Sundays in the month in 84 per cent of 
the rural churches. 


TABLE 28.—PREACHING PRoGRAM oF 6,060 RuraL CHURCHES IN OHIO! 


Ministerial Service Number | Per Cent 

WV tA PeSIUCNUSIDITLISLCE fre (ri ie ete e Veena oe tetas seed ate uals 2,053 33.8 
Waithoumresigentiministers aves. wuits Seine SK ioe Solu gets 4,007 66.2 
VALI TIMetA TG TINISLEL cher ect cgt cg ised ee eefote de SU Sree ae ok 982 16.2 
WIR Oeste line TIN ISLOr ye. a wees verse wreath oeebenetars 1,581 26.0 
WEE One-Uhird tine IniINIster?. Vee, wre ee ere ee Ler25 18.5 
With one-quarter time minister............00.000000: 970 16.0 
With less than one-quarter time minister.............. 629 10.7 
With no regular service of minister.................6- @21 11.9 
DVM nUMGEO ALY AVE lab Giunn ccc: < oa vis arse Rie erie alba aes 52 8 

Ue a Vega kireait sec ree ak ha a eae aE rae eee 6,060 100.1 


In a number of rural surveys, the church programs have been 
analyzed. In Boone County, Missouri, it was found that 74 
per cent of the population, in the area surveyed, attend church 
more or less regularly while but 34 per cent of the population 
attend Sunday school. In the Sikeston, Missouri, Community 
it was found that 45 per cent of the rural population attend 
church and 36 per cent attend Sunday school.’ 


1Guu, C. O. and Prncnor, G., Six Thousand Country Churches, pp. 125-127, 
The Macmillan Company, New York, 1920. 

?'TayLor, Cart C., A Social Survey of the Columbia Trade Area, Boone 
County, Missouri, (unpublished). 

* TayLor, CARL C,, Yooper, F. R., and Zimmerman, C. C., A Social Study of 
Farm Tenancy in Southeast Missouri, (unpublished). 


226 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


From these and other data it is apparent that the rural 
church program is largely a program of one-fourth- and one- 
half-time preaching. The rural church has few of the auxiliary 
organizations which are a part of the average city church’s 
program. Its house stands idle six days out of the average 
week and seven days in many weeks. In McDonald County, 
Missouri, only one country church had a young peoples’ or- 
ganization, only one had a ladies’ aid society and none had a 
missionary society. In thousands of rural churches the Sun- 
day school runs only a portion of the year. 

The annual revival is a part of the average rural church’s 
program. The purpose of revivals is to solicit members for 
the church. That they are universal, annual, and generally 
bear fruit in added members is sufficient testimony to their 
general futility, for the membership dwindles and the church 
doors close in the face of so-called successful revivals. An_. 
illustration is in a small village in Tompkins County, New 
York, where a revival in 1890 produced 200 converts. Only 
one of these ultimately became an active church member, 
while these churches have been struggling and depressed ever 
since. Gill says that it is evident that this revival has proved 
a lasting injury to these churches. The following quotation 
aptly summarizes the weakness of this type of a church 
program: 


For the most part the farm people of these eighteen counties 
(Ohio) are very religious. This is attested not merely by the large 
number of churches, but also by revival services, held in the winter. 
(In Pike County, for example, no less than 1,500 revival services 
were held in thirty years, or an average of fifty each year.) Yet 
the moral, wholesome religion, bearing as its fruit better living 
and all-round human development, and cherished and propagated 
by sane and sober-minded people, is rarely known. The main 
function of the church, according to the popular conception, is to 
hold these protracted meetings, to stir up religious emotion, and 
under this influence, to bring to pass certain psychological experi- 
ences. No man is held to be religious or saved from evil destiny 


*Giutt, C. O., and Pincnor, G., The Country Church, pp. 43-44, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York, 1913. 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 227 


unless he has had such experiences. It becomes, therefore, the busi- 
ness of the preacher of the church to create conditions favorable to 
experiencing these emotions. 


The author knows of a number of rural churches which hold 
annual revivals. They spend from $100 to $200 in these 
“protracted meetings.” And then cannot support a one- 
fourth-time preaching program over two-thirds of the time. 
In the case of one rural church in the state of Iowa he knows 
of a revival with sixty-five converts. The church was closed 
immediately following the revival meeting and had not been 
opened, except for funerals, in the six months following. A 
farmer plowing in a field adjacent to the church testified to 
such revivals being held at least every two years and yet said 
the church membership was about thirty-five. The over- 
emphasis of the preaching part of the rural church’s program 
is the cause of the universal, annual, country church revival. 

City churches have recreation, social, educational, charity 
and social work, civic, Sunday School, men’s and women’s 
clubs, young people’s auxiliaries and other programs. These 
things, with the exception of the Sunday school and occasional 
young people’s “societies” are almost universally absent from 
the rural church. 

Absence of Pastoral Aid—Because the majority of rural 
churches are served by absentee ministers, the pastoral and 
visitation programs of the church are weak. Gill found one 
township in Ohio where the farmers’ families had not been 
called on once in five years. One woman had not received 
a call from a minister in twelve years, but joined the church 
when she was called on. In another township, he found one 
family that had not been called on in twenty-five years. Of 
course, ministers who come into a community for one or two 
preaching services per month cannot be expected to do efficient 
community work. 

A. W. Taylor made a study of the pastoral organization of 
rural churches in Missouri. The two following cases taken 


1Guu, C. O., and Pincuot, G., Six Thousand Country Churches, 21 pp., The 
Macmillan Company, New York, 1920. 


228 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


from that study are typical. In one community there were 
four churches representing four different denominations. Hach 
church had one-fourth-time preaching. No pastor lived in 
the community. One preacher came twenty-four miles, one 
twenty-five miles, one thirty miles and one forty miles to meet 
preaching engagements. The question was most naturally 
asked, “Who pastors this community?” In another case a 
preacher served four churches and lived in a city not very 
near any of his churches. He traveled fifteen miles to one of 
these churches, thirty-seven miles to another, fifty miles to 
another and sixty miles to the other. The question asked in 
this case was, “Where is his pastorate?” + Very often the 
preacher arrives just in time for the morning service and 
leaves immediately following the evening service. The author 
has known of student preachers who traveled over 200 miles 
to meet Sunday engagements with rural churches. He knows 
men who have spent their lives as “railroad” preachers, never 
having held a distinct pastorate in their lives. He knows 
dozens of rural ministers who spend the six days of the week 
in some other occupation and then travel to some distant rural 
church to preach on Sunday. Every observer of rural church 
organizations has made the same observations. No institution 
can be expected to prosper with such spasmodic and irrespon- 
sible leadership. 

The Ohio Rural Life survey showed that only 11 per cent 
of the churches without ministers were growing, 26 per cent 
with non-resident ministers were growing, and 51 per cent with 
resident ministers were growing. This same survey showed 
that 47 per cent were growing where there was full-time 
preaching, 27 per cent were growing where was one-half-time 
preaching and 21 per cent were growing where there was one- 
fourth-time preaching. It showed only 4 per cent having 
full-time preaching. The effect upon church efficiency of 
such conditions is apparent. Gill’s study shows a clear correla- 
tion between resident pastors and rural morality.? 


*Taytor, A. W., The Disciples of Christ in Missouri. 
*These data will be presented in the following chapter. 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 229 


In addition to the prevailing absentee pastors, which is a 
great handicap in church organization work, the rural pas- 
torates are very short. In one of the largest denominations 
in Ohio, 48 per cent of the ministers were preaching their first 
or second years and only 26 per cent had had as much as two 
years of acquaintance with their pastorates. About 1 per 
cent had served as long as five years. These data are typical 
for the finding of all rural church surveys. A year’s service by 
a minister who does not live in the community cannot accom- 
plish much by way of a community program. 

Poor Physical Equipment.—The physical equipment of the 
rural church is almost universally poor. Even the live, wide- 
awake church organizations which have a building and equip- 
ment of which they are proud, would be compelled to acknowl- 
edge their deficiencies when compared with the equipment of 
a modern city church. Rural church buildings, like all other 
buildings, carry with them the tragedy of being sound phys- 
ically, long after they are inadequate to meet the needs of the 
new programs. The large majority of rural churches are one- 
room buildings, equipped for preaching services only. The 
result is that no efficient Sunday school can be conducted be- 
cause of lack of classrooms and no social or recreation pro- 
grams can be carried out because of inadequate auditorium 
space. The churches are so little used, the membership is so 
small and the financial support so meagre that the equipment 
is often in a state of decay. The heating of many of the rural 
churches is so poor that it handicaps, sometimes completely 
eliminates, the church programs during winter months. The 
floor, seats, walls, windows, and pulpit are often anything but 
attractive. Almost universally the church building and equip- 
ment is below the housing standard of the homes of the com- 
munity. The following statement of facts is representative of 
rural church equipment: In Green and Clermont counties, 
Ohio, 50 per cent of the churches have but one room; 61 per 
cent are wooden structures. In Montgomery County, Mary- 
land, 55 per cent of the buildings are one-room. In Sedgwick 
County, Kansas, 62 per cent of the buildings are one room and 


230 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


the average value of open country churches is $2,680. In 
Randolph County, Missouri, all the churches are one-room and 
89 per cent are wood structures. In Southwestern Ohio nearly 
one-half of the edifices are valued at less than $1,000, of the 
378 church buildings, 378 are one-room, only 90 per cent of 
the churches are heated with stoves, 71 per cent lighted with 
oil and only 3 per cent have horse sheds. 

Poor Financial Support.—The rural church 1s hats sup- 
ported financially. This is not to assert that rural church 
members do not pay well for what they get from their 
churches, or even to assert that rural church members do not 
subscribe per capita financial support in just as great ratio 
as do city members. It is to say that per church organization 
the rural church is inadequately supported. Its physical 
equipment value is low. Its minister is poorly paid, its sup- 
port of extra preaching programs is meagre. A study of the 
one-fourth-time churches of one whole denomination in the 
state of Missouri found the per capita contribution to be $3.1 
The per capita for all the churches of the nations was seven 
dollars and six cents in 1920.2 In Pend Oreille County, Wash- 
ington, the average rural church raised but $311 annually 
while the average village church raised $1,258.71. In this 
county, the per capita disbursements per rural church mem- 
bers were almost 50 per cent greater than those of village 
members.® A careful study of the findings of numerous rural 
surveys will justify the assertion that the farmer is willing 
adequately to support an efficient church program. Wherever 
his support is short, it is because his church does not justify 
more adequate support. The per member support tends to 
vary in direct ratio to services rendered by the church. The 
shortcomings are in the weak church organization because of 
overchurching and sectarian division. 

*Taytor, A. W., The Disciples of Christ and the Rural Church, The Com- 


mission of Social Service and the Rural Church of the Disciples of Christ, 
Indianapolis, Indiana, 1915. 

* WARBURTON, S. R. Year Book of the Churches, 197 pp., The Federal 
Council of the Churches of Christ in America, New York, 1920. 

* Brunner, E. pve’S, A Church and Community Survey of Pend Oreille 
County, Washington, pp- 37-88, George H. Doran Company, New York, 1922. 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 231 


The rural minister is poorly supported for about the same 
reason. He is not generally representative of the best trained 
and most experienced of his profession. The organization of 
his work is divided between two, four, and sometimes as many 
as seven churches. This makes it impossible for him to render 
valuable service to any one church. Gill found that in 1917, 
688 pastors of rural churches in Ohio received on the average 
$993 per year, and 188 pastors of the United Bretheren 
Church received an average annual salary of $787.’ This is 
poor support for ministers but is no evidence that the rural 
church member is not contributing his share to the propaga- 
tion of religion. Rather it is proof that the dissipation of 
church organization is failing to give the minister adequate 
support in somewhat the same ratio as it is failing to per- 
form the whole task of institutionalized religion. 

We have already discussed at some length the weakness of 
church membership and church attendance in rural commu- 
nities. That these are direct results and not causes of the 
other weaknesses, is not difficult to prove. Rural churches 
do not suddenly fall into decay. The usual rule in a new 
or ploneer community is that one church is built; it is fairly 
adequately supported by a large portion of the community. 
The field, because of this fact, and because of the denomina- 
tional zeal of other sects, is soon filled with a number of 
other churches. The support is divided, the membership is 
divided and sometimes actual denominational strife ensues. 
Non-church members who would willingly have attended and 
supported the one church of the community refuse to take 
sides in the denominational struggle. Denominational church 
supporters become discouraged over the depleted church 
program and the resulting fewer meetings. The young people 
of the community have competing church attractions. Not 
only the membership and attendance of the individual 
churches fall off but in some cases the per cent of the total 
church membership and attendance actually dwindles. 


1Gru, C. O., and Prncnuort, G., Six Thousand Country Churches, 122 pp., 
The Macmillan Company, New York, 1920. 


232 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


The pioneer sections of the nation are not over churched. 
Neither are the churches of these sections dying or the church 
attendance falling off. In Pend Oreille County, Washington, 
the attendance exceeds the membership and the per member 
disbursements are $36.53 per year. It is the church of one- 
fourth or one-half-time preaching and of small membership 
that has poor attendance, and poor support per member. 

The two following characterizations of rural church situa- 
tions are altogether too representative of the vast majority of 
rural communities; though, of course, there are exceptions. 
We are giving summaries from these two surveys because they 
do present so many typical situations. 


In the northern central part of the country is an area of ninety- 
six square miles in which are five organized churches with an aggre- 
gate membership of 125. The population of this territory is about 
1,400. Dug Hill, in this district, illustrates the inadequacy of 
human judgment in equipping a given territory with centers of 
gospel light. At this point there stand two churches, in a lonely 
place in the edges of the woods, grimly looking at each other. They 
once worshipped in one building but something happened and under 
the press of sectarian strife the second Zion was set up. Neither 
one has a regular pastor, the members are widely scattered over 
this sparsely settled district and neither one has more than twenty- 
five members. Yet both are striving to keep up the ordinances; and 
each has a Sabbath school and a few earnest people are trying to do 
their best under these unfavorable conditions. . . . There are ten 
abandoned churches in the county. . . . A pastor’s time is divided 
between a number of churches. Many of them have four places 
of preaching and some as many as six. 

Of eighty country churches studied, ten have resident pastors. 
Two of these are in the open country and their pastors have ap- 
pointments that require them to be absent three-fourths of the time. 
Of thirty-five pastors, ten have one place of preaching, eight have 
two places, four have three places, eight have four places, two have 
five places, two have six places and one has seven places. 

Taking the gain or loss of membership as a measure for a period 
of ten years out of sixty-one churches, it appears that twenty have 
gained, eighteen have lost, nineteen are standing still, while four 
are dead. 


THE PROBLEM OF THE RURAL CHURCH 233 


Few churches outside the towns have organizations connected 
with them, except Sabbath schools, some Ladies’ Aid or Missionary 
Society and Young Peoples’ Leagues. 


In MeDonald County, Missouri, in 1918, there were twenty- 
seven active churches, fourteen in villages and thirteen in the 
open country. There were thirteen abandoned churches in 
the country. The total church membership had decreased 15 
per cent in the last ten years. Only 11 per cent of the popu- 
lation of the county was represented in church membership; 
38 per cent of the resident church members were non-active; 
46 per cent of the open country churches had no Sunday 
schools. Only one country church had any auxiliary church 
organization. This county is worse than the average and 
yet it only represents, in an exaggerated degree, the facts, 
conditions, and tendencies which constitute the problem of 
the rural church of America. 

This chapter has been a portrayal of facts which constitute 
a very small portion of the information now available on the 
rural church situation in the various sections of the nation. 
These facts show the church to be actually decadent in the 
older settled areas of the country. That church divisions and 
ill-equipped ministers are the two chief causes of the decad- 
ence, we do not hesitate to assert. Since these two chief 
causes are items over which the country man himself has little 
control, the situation is not bright for the country church. 
There is a way out, however. The rural necessity for union 
and cooperation of forces, for unfettered and clear-visioned 
leadership will ultimately do for the rural religious situation 
what it has largely done for the religious program of foreign 
missionary work, viz., force church leaders and church schools 
and church dogmas to yield a wholesome life in the commu- 
nities where rural churches are located. An analysis of how 
this can be done and in some measure is being done will fur- 
nish the subject matter for the next chapter. 

*Excerpts and direct quotations from A Rural Survey in Arkansas, pp. 


23-25, Department of Church and County Life, Board of Home Missions, 
Presbyterian Church in the United States, 156 Fifth Ave., New York City. 


234 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Gitt, C. O., and Pincnot, G., The Country Church, The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York, 19138. 

Git, C. O., and Pincnor, G., Siz Thousand Country Churches, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York, 1920. 

Voct, P. L., Introduction to Rural Sociology, Chap. XVII, D. Appleton & 
Company, New York. 

BruNNER, E. pe’S., A Church and Community Survey of Pend Oreille County, 
Washington. 

Witson, W. H., The Church of the Open Country, Missionary Educational 
Movement, New York, 1921. 


CHAPTER XI 
AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM 
THE DISCOVERY OF THE ROLE OR MISSION OF THE RURAL CHURCH 


The Church Must Teach and Develop Ideals in Rural Life — 
The morality of rural people is not low. In fact it is high. 
The morals of the rural community are stern, and no wide de- 
parture from them is tolerated. The impersonal relation- 
ships, which exist in city life, are unknown to country 
people. Everyone is a member of the community; anyone who 
is delinquent is marked. Anyone who is habitually dishonest 
or untruthful is known by all to be such. A wild boy or an 
undisciplined girl becomes a subject of neighborhood gossip. 
A rural community comes much nearer living to itself than 
a city community does; it is, therefore, concerned about its 
own integrity. The old-fashioned family is still a reality in 
the open country. Rural parents are much more likely than 
city parents to know where their children are at night and on 
Sundays. Rural life is not a life of change. The farmer is 
slow to change his ideas about right and wrong, just as he is 
slow to change his ideas about other matters. All these things 
make for a rule of custom. Unconsciously, each new genera- 
tion and each newcomer into the community falls into line 
with the accustomed way of doing and thinking. Probably 
it is partially because the farmer is used to believing that he 
can count on the fundamental integrity of others, that he is 
easily swindled. 

The existence of stable, almost static, and sometimes stulti- 
fying tendencies of rural life and rural thinking, however, lead 
to a lack of idealism among rural folk. Poetry, art, and liter- 
ature are sadly lacking in rural life. The sentimental is almost 
universally decried. The stern forces of nature and the pres- 
sure of occupational habits crush out many ideals. It is prob- 

235 


236 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


ably because of these facts that it is hard to rally farm popula- 
tions to civic causes, and difficult to get them to fight the bat- 
tles of social progress. 

The essence of religion is to develop aspirations, to ex- 
pand individual emotion into altruistic impulses, and to teach 
people to measure all things that are by what they ought to 
be. This is the church’s most definite task. The preaching of 
individual salvation alone, the teaching of denominational 
creeds, the encouragement of an undying loyalty to sectarian 
beliefs and dogmas have not only kept the rural church from 
prospering, but have robbed modern rural civilization of many 
of the ideals which other elements of our population have, and 
which some rural civilizations of the past have had. Religion 
is almost automatically propagandic, promotional, and pre- 
dictive in nature. The type of religion which the rural church 
must teach must no longer be robbed of its birthright. Rural 
people must no longer be led to think of religion and the church 
as restrictive of life, but they must be given a more abundant 
life, by means of a religion and a church, that expand their 
understandings, appreciations, and visions of life. 

The Rural Church Must Exercise Moral and Ethical Leader- 
ship.—Rural life may be more static and less complex than 
city life, but every human relationship known to man exists 
as an inevitable part of rural life. Sin inheres in wrong 
human relationships, righteousness in right human relation- 
ships. These relationships are all in the rural communities. 
Moral and ethical teaching and leadership are needed in rural 
communities as much as in other places. Every element in 
the standard of living—food, clothing, shelter, health, educa- 
tion, recreation, and friendships—for which persons strive, is 
found in rural society. Each of the great institutions—the 
home, the school, government, business, and the church it- 
self—is a part of every rural community. If persons go wrong 
in their pursuit of these elements in their standards of living, 
they are immoral and unethical. If they build poor institu- 
tions, fail to give proper emphasis to the institutionalized 
phases of their lives, or refuse to participate in the support of 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM — 287 


the social institutions they are poor citizens. The church 
has the task and opportunity of developing and teaching moral 
and ethical judgments on these matters. 

Just now farmers, through their various economic organiza- 
tions, especially through the farm bureau and commodity co- 
operative marketing movements, are developing all sorts of 
new business relationships and contacts. They need to time 
their movements by some other than revolutionary ideas and 
economic gain. The church should be on the job with ethical 
leadership. Furthermore, the farmer is very rapidly coming 
into his own politically. He, as all others, needs ethical leader- 
ship in the exercise of his citizenship and political power. 

In addition to these newly developed relationships, rural 
communities have in their midst the relationships of persons 
of different economic and social status. people of all ages, the 
problems of sex relationships, business relationships between 
members of the community, recreational relationships, and 
many others. These adjustments in life will no more take 
care of themselves in a rural community than they will else- 
where. An “other-worldly” religion will not take care of 
them. The rural community needs a dynamic moral and 
ethical leadership. 

That the rural church is failing to furnish ethical and moral 
leadership would be a deduction easily drawn from a knowl- 
edge of the type of religion that is preached from the average 
rural pulpit. We need not stop with deduction, however. 
C. O. Gill made a very careful study of certain moral and 
civic characteristics and the church habits of the people in 
eighteen counties in Ohio. He reached the conclusion that 
the church was failing in its function, and was almost inclined 
to conclude that it was doing so because its type of religion 
and church division contributes to civic unrighteousness. The 
following excerpts are quotations from his conclusion:* 


It is evident that the failure of the churches in this area cannot 
be laid to the weakness or poverty of the denominations represented, 
for they are, for the most part, neither weak nor poor. Ohio, more- 


1G, C. O. and Pincuor, G., Six Thousand Country Churches, pp. 19-21, 
The Macmillan Company, 1920. 


238 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


over, is a wealthy state, and its churches make large contributions 
for church work and church extension both in America and abroad. 

In rural Ohio, the worst moral and religious conditions are found 
where there are the largest number of churches in proportion to the 
number of inhabitants. . . . In the rural sections of these eighteen 
counties, there are 1,542 churches and 248 townships, or more than 
six churches to a township. 

In the state as a whole, about one-third, or 34 per cent, of the 
rural churches have resident ministers. But in thirteen of the 
eighteen counties, less than one-fifth of the churches have resident 
ministers. Here, as in most rural sections, an absentee ministry is 
necessarily ineffective. 

Officials of denominations to which more than two-thirds of the 
churches belong, encourage or permit the promotion of a religion of 
the excessively emotional type, which encourages rolling upon the 
floor by men, women, and children, and going into trances, while 
some things which have happened in the regular services of a church 
in one of the largest denominations cannot properly be described 
in print. 


The following table presents the correlation between the 


moral and civic conditions and the church organization of the 


“Highteen Counties” :+ 


TaBLE 29.—Morau AND Civic CoNDITIONS AND CHURCH ORGANIZATION 


— 





Facts from 
Average for | Most Out- 


Moral and Civic Facts Kighty-eight | standing 


Counties County of 
of Ohio the Eighteen 
Per Item? 
Average annual rate of deaths from tuberculosis of 
the lungs per 100,000 persons, 1909, 1910, 1911... 125 217 
Average annual rate per 100,000 population of ille- 
ritimatednrens tor 1009,.1910) . 80 ae ee 43.9 123 
Per cent of illiterate males of voting age, 1910..... 4.2 11.6 
Number/of persons to'a church 2... 2.02 A ee 279 : 178 
Per cent of churches having resident ministers... .. 34 414 
Number of persons to each resident minister....... 825 1,458 
7 DU Oap te 


> While the most outstanding county per individual item is presented in this 
table, it is also true that any one of the eighteen counties could have been 
chosen, and the same comparison, only with different ratios, would have 
prevailed. 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM 239 


The facts presented in this table are almost too patent for 
discussion. Every item listed is of civic or moral significance 
to any community. Numbers of churches, denominational 
zeal, and frequency of revival meetings have apparently not 
influenced the civic and moral life of these counties, unless in 
an adverse manner. It was in one of these eighteen counties 
that 1,500 revival services had been held in the last thirty 
years. It was in some of these counties, also, that the national 
scandal of vote selling took place a few years ago. 

One item presented among these facts is particularly worthy 
of note, viz., that the number of resident ministers per church 
and per population was low in the eighteen counties. The 
churches were there in overabundance, but the religious 
teacher, community pastor, and moral leader which the church 
was supposed to furnish was absent in all but 14 per cent of 
the cases. 

Moral and ethical character for individuals and communi- 
ties is not a result of sudden conversion, except in extraor- 
dinary cases. It is a matter of habits and often of judgment. 
A leadership, which prevails only over the period of a short 
revival meeting, is exercised only one Sunday per month, this 
leadership for only one Sunday per quarter, or even for a year, 
is not capable of contributing much to individual or com- 
munity character building. The leadership of the church 
must be continuous. The absentee ministry, short pastorates, 
and a mere preaching program cannot do the job. The 
church must have a preacher who lives in the community over 
a period of years, conducts systematic training in moral and 
ethical judgments and ideals, and participates in guiding 
human adjustments wherever and whatever they are. 
Preachers at the present are hired and fired by rural congre- 
gations mostly because the congregation likes or dislikes their 
pulpit performances. ‘This is not surprising, since pulpit per- 
formance is about all the preacher has an opportunity to dem- 
onstrate under the present inefficient rural church organiza- 
tion. 

The Rural Church Must Be a Real Social Institution —A 
social institution always has two tasks of adjustment—the 


240 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


task of performing well its own division of labor; and the task 
of working in cooperation with other institutions and agencies. 
The division of labor and the specific tasks of the rural church 
have been outlined in the discussion just presented. How 
the rural church can work in cooperation with other agencies 
and institutions in rural endeavor is of no less importance. 
Often the church finds itself located in a community where 
many worth-while things are not being done by other agencies. 
The life of the community may be abnormal, because the 
young people have no adequate leisure-time program; because 
there are no social, pleasure, and improvement clubs for 
adults; because library facilities are lacking ; because the 
farmers of the community are not practicing economic co- 
operation; because the means of transportation and communi- 
cation are poor; because there are unhealthful and unsanitary 
places and practices in the community; or because the people 
lack educational vision and ideals. All these things are mat- 
ters of deepest concern to the life of the people. If no other 
agency has a definite program and piece of machinery for 
handling them, the church is surely justified in attaching them 
to its central function. If there are agencies for the promo- 
tion of recreation, health, education, social improvement, 
beautification, road improvement, or better farming, which 
are working in the community, the church should work in 
dynamic cooperation with these agencies. It can often fur- 
nish a meeting place and facilities for staging their programs, 
and promote their success by announcement and advertise- 
ment. 

The chief vision that the church needs to get of its insti- 
tutional significance is an understanding that no social institu- 
tion is an end in itself. Every item in the program of the 
church and every purpose it seeks to promote should be not 
for itself but for the community. The chief fault of the rural 
church of the past has been, and the abiding sin of the sec- 
tarian church still is, that it looks upon the community as ter- 
ritory and population to be worked for the sake of building up 
the church rather than looking at the church as a working 
agency in the life of the communities. All institutions, gov- 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM 241 


ernments, industries, schools, churches, and homes are too 
likely to think of themselves as having institutional vested 
rights. The church is particularly addicted to this fallacy 
because of its other-worldly teachings and sanctions. Every 
institution must constantly make good its right to exist, by 
adequately performing the function which justified its origin. 
Judged either by its average programs or by its failure to 
survive in rural districts, the church has proved that it is 
guilty of having lost, or of never having conceived, its insti- 
tutional significance. 


THE EFFICIENT ORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL CHURCH 


The Par-standard for Country Churches——One of the de- 
velopments growing out of the Inter-church World Movement 
was the adoption of the “Par-standard for Country Churches.” 
This standard was worked out and approved by the Town and 
Country Committee of the Home Mission Council, and sub- 
mitted to a large group of the survey workers representing 
every state in the Union. These people had all done field 
survey work, and were familiar with the varieties of condi- 
tions existing in America. It should also be stated that, in 
addition to investigational experiences, these men had been 
country ministers, and knew intimately the problems of the 
rural parish. There was unanimous agreement that this Par- 
standard should be placed before the country churches of 
America, not as an ideal far beyond their accomplishment, but 
as a goal which a church might, in all reasonableness, expect 
to attain. Since that time, one denomination, and the home 
mission departments of two others, have adopted the Par- 
standard with slight adaptations for their own purposes. 

It should be stated that no attempt has been made to give 
comparative value to the points in this Standard. So far, the 
table shows that a resident pastor on full-time counts as much 
as horse sheds or parking space. Obviously, this is a weakness 
in the Standard, but it was drawn up, not for the purpose of 
comparative valuation, but for the purposes of suggesting 


242 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


minimum achievements for a country congregation of average 
strength. 

The points covered in this Par-standard for Country 
Churches are as follows:* 


Up-to-date parsonage 

Adequate church auditorium space 
Social and recreational equipment 
Well-equipped kitchen 

Organ or piano 

Sunday-school room 

Stereopticon or moving-picture machine 
Sanitary toilets 

Horse sheds or parking space 

Property in good repair and condition 


Adequate 
Physical 
Equipment 


(Resident pastor 
ah Full-time pastor 
Astor’ +++) Service every Sunday 
| 


Minimum salary of $1,200 


Annual church Budget adopted annually 
Every member canvass 
Benevolences equal to 25 per cent current expenses 


Finance. . 


Meetings. . .Cooperation with other churches in community ;systematic evangelism 
Parish. ....Church serves all racial and occupational groups 


Sunday-school held entire year 

Sunday-school enrolment equal to church membership 
Religious | Attempt to bring pupils to church 
Education. |Special instruction for church membership 

Teacher training or normal class 

Provision for leadership training 


Organized activities for age and sex groups 

Program of} Cooperation with boards and denominational agencies 

Wiorkeuee, Program adopted annually, 25 per cent of membership partic'pating 
|Church reaching entire community 

This standard might be stated in less categorical terms as 
follows: 

1. The rural church must have adequate space, buildings, 
and working equipment, such as physical machinery and tech- 
nologies, if it is to perform its task well. 

2. It must have a church leader, in the person of the pastor, 
who gives his whole time to the task, and to whom sufficient 
remuneration is given to guarantee an adequately trained 
man. 


* Brunner, EH. ve S., A Church and Community Survey of Pend Oreille 
County, Washington, pp. 44-45, George H. Doran Company, New York, 1922. 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM 248 


3. It must have an efficiently organized business policy, 
which provides support for all the programs of the church. 

4. Its meetings must be so organized and conducted as to 
furnish definite and consistent religious direction to the lives 
of the members of the community. 

5. It must conceive of its parish as encompassing all classes 
and types of people whom it can bring within its influence. 

6. It must furnish religious education for the sake of train- 
ing persons to carry on its own program, and for efficient 
living in the community. 

7. It must have a program which challenges the interest 
and solicits the support of people of all ages, all sexes, and 
all types. 

There are thirty elements or points in the Par-standard. A 
rural church that scored 30 would not yet be an ideal church, 
but it would be far better equipped to perform its task than 
is the average rural church at the present. Table 30 illus- 
trates the application of the slightly modified Par-standard to 
ten rural churches. In the table, there are but twenty-nine 
points. The average for the ten churches, which are meas- 
ured by the standards, is 11.7. 

A study of this table reveals the weak points in these ten 
churches. Not one of them is attempting to reach the entire 
community; not one adopts an annual program of work; not 
one makes provision for leadership training; not one practices 
systematic evangelism; not one is equipped with sanitary 
toilets or with social and recreational equipment. The first 
four of these weaknesses just listed are weaknesses in elements 
which constitute the very heart of the rural church’s task. A 
church which does not have a definitely planned program of 
work; does not even attempt to reach the whole community; 
makes no attempt at training church and Sunday-school 
leaders; and does not work systematically and constantly to 
induce persons to live Christian lives, 1s a weak church indeed. 
Again we see the influence of the denominational divisions of 
the churches, in the failure of every one of these ten churches 
even to try to reach the entire community. 

If we measure these ten churches by the seven major divi- 


244 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Tas.e 30.—A Srupy or ActuaL CuurcuHeEs, Each DesiGNATED BY A NUMBER! 
Key: V=Yes, X=No, .. =No information. 


1}2/3)4/5|6| 7/8) 9/10 





V-0 
Endeavoring to reach entire community .. .|X|X}|X|X|X} Xj X| X| X| X|} X-10 


Adopted annually, 25 per cent of membership V-0 


























DATHICIPALING wave Ghee MMe Ns fies ne ee X} X| XX] XK] XIX! X| XX) X-10 
Cooperation with other boards and denom- V-8 
INALLONAL ALENCIES eke nen Mee ee ees Vi Vi Vi Vi X| Vi Vi X| Vi Vi X 2 
V-1 
Organized activities for age and sex groups. .|-X|_X| V| X|-X/|-X|X|X| X| Xj K 9 
V-0 

Provision for leadership training........... X| X| XX] X| XX) XIX) X| KX) K-10 
V-1 
Teacher training or normal class........... X| X| X| XX} X} X| X} Vi xX) V-9 
V-3 
Special instruction for church membership . | V| X|X|X| X|X}X| V| X| V| V-7 
Systematic attempt to bring Sunday-school V-1 
HUOUSN LO COUPEE Weng aa rssh nen eae X| X| XX} Vj X| X| X) X) X| X} X-9 
Sunday-school enrolment is equal church. V-4 
MCI HeTaLI Pear aes aie els pia klar eae X} X} Vj Vj X| X| X| X| V] Vi X-6 
V-8 


Sunday-school held twelve months of year. .| V| V} V| V| X| Vj V| V|_X| V} X-2 


A | ee ED | cme cme eee eres eons ees | ow ame 

















Church serves all racial and occupational V-6 
COON eee Gia) cu Be ye ats onan ee eee X| Vj V} Vi -X| Vi -X| V} Vix) X-4 
V-0 
There is systematic evangelism............ X| -X} XX} -X| KX] XX] XI) X| KX) X-10 
V-9 
Cooperation with other churchesin community} V| V} V| Vj _X| V| Vj V; Vj V| X-1 
Benevolences are equal to 25 per cent current V-6 
CXPCNSER! GBM AMEMIEE UG Aik a lene ks cab Vi Vi Vj Vi X|-X} Vi X|-X| Vj X-4 
V-5 


Every member canvass conducted yearly. ../ X|X/ Vj V| X| V| Vj X)X| V| X-5 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM 245 


—y 














1|}2/)3/4/5/6|7/8{|9/10 

















V-5 

Annual church budget adopted yearly...... X} Vj Vj V|_-X} X} V} -X) XxX) V} X-5 
V-5 

Salary at least $1,200 per year............. Vi..{ Vi Vi X| X} Vi xX) X!} Vi X-4 
V-7 

Services in church every Sunday........... Vi -X) Vi Vj Vi Vi Vj VIX) XxX} X-3 
V-4 








Property in good repair, in good condition. .| Vj..| V} V}| V}-X| V} V] Vj V} X-1 





























V-6 
Horse sheds or parking space on property... .| Xj V| V|-X]..} V|-X} V} Vj V| X-3 
V-2 
AMILALY LOUGLS PrOVIUGs s 2 a.% Nese ce tees et X| X| -X| Vj X| X| V}_X} X| xX) X-8 
V-2 
Steregpulcon OF MOVIES... 66sec ce V| X| X) X] X] XX} X} X} Vi X-8 
V-5 
Separate Sunday-school rooms............. Vi Vi Vi Vi Xt XY) Vy) xX) X) xX) X-5 © 
V-1 
Well-equipped kitchen.................... X} Vi} X| X| X} X| X) X| X} X} X-9 
V-1 
Other social and recreational equipment. ...| X|-X|X|X}-X|X| V| X|X|X} X-9 
V-2 
Adequate church auditorium space......... X| X| X| X} V} X| X} V) Vj V} X-8 
V-7 
TI P-b0-USte, DOESONAIS Woe lai as: cera ee nice Vi Vi X| Vi Vj Vi Vi Vi X) X} X-3 
LOU DOIN Det OACHOG?7laen Ge one teak ak 12}10/16)17} 6|10/15) 8) 7|14) Aver- 
age 
11.5 


* Home Lands, October, 1920, pp. 5. 


246 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


sions of the standard (those listed at the extreme left in the 
table), we find that the weaknesses rank as follows: (1) Pro- 
gram of Work, (2) Religious Education, (3) Adequate Phys- 
ical Equipment, (4) Meetings, (5) Parish, (6) Finance, (7) 
Pastors. 

One Adequate Church, Church Building, and Equipment 
for the Community.—It is just as foolish to divide the insti- 
tutional program of religion in a community between a num- 
ber of churches, each striving to perform the same function 
and accomplish the same purpose, as it would be to divide the 
educational program of the community between a number of 
schools, each striving to do the same thing. The author is 
thoroughly aware of the difficulty of organizing church effort 
on the mechanical basis of one church to each community. 
Sectarian allegiance and loyalty run too deep at the present 
time for such a scheme to be inaugurated quickly. That it 
will ultimately come to be a fairly universal practice, there 
can be little doubt. In some places it will come, because of 
conscious rational effort; in other places it may have to come 
by means of “the survival of the fittest” among the numerous 
churches which now infest the community. The tragedy of 
allowing it to come by the latter of these two methods is that 
the religion of the community will be weak for years to come 
and in many cases all the churches will fail, leaving the com- 
munity, as it has already done in numerous rural districts, 
with no church at all. 

In discussing the rural church weaknesses in Ohio, we sug- 
gested that one-fifth the number of rural churches could effi- 
ciently supply the church needs of Ohio rural life. Let us see, 
then, what this one church might, or could, expect under such 
circumstances. In Ohio, the average church membership is 
280; five times this is 1,400. The average of rooms per church 
building is about 1.3; five times this is 6.5. The value of the 
church building is about $3,000; five times this is $15,000. 
The average amount of ground is one acre; five times this is 
five acres. The average annual expenditures are $1,618; five 
times this is $8,090. If the disbursements were distributed 
as they are in Green and Claremont counties, Ohio, there 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM = 247 


would be $2,115 for the pastor’s salary, $240 for Sunday- 
school, $440 for supervision, $2,010 for repairs, $495 for home 
missions, $595 for foreign missions, $770 for other benevo- 
lences, and the remaining amount for fuel, light, janitor 
service, and other current expense. Let us set forth these 
items in a table that we may get some vision of such a church. 


TaBLE 31.—A NorMAL, CoNSOLIDATED, RurAL CuurcH 








@rerievers ky Aoife hey oh Oo a tees chin Lok a ich eR A od Five acres 
PRCT oy ok ak EIS cr IA Bile MEARS Jaa Oe a REF Six or seven 
Ure hp aN LLCO ROE SUR Ee fA MR a PN fo $9,910 
DL HEN eraser Mae cee 20) ld lic) oh 5:0) Uae MMR A og 1,400 
PATTIE URE UMS te hate TO ee Pe Ree. ake als ss Cee umer ne nk) dc 8,090 
NENA r ote VE EW ah 0 RAO gM ee We Oa ct a 2,115 
Mtn VesCNOOLFeXDOTISEN aa sisi (silane Lary atL. la, oul meee ie va 5 240 
TIONG MUINSUOS oun ie seer mene e eee eee aD were ters 0 495 
Lkeygoreqet Raebtscita) aioe eS hime ie era tie GP eae eats ae eA Bn) A 595 
OLREC Dene y COGN CES ca diver Oe unre An amy mare yen at! lei car, 770 
eb ge rhe URN a pore Ml Bae aa le MILE Nr Pea cae aR aL aR a 440 
Dadar Minch abl bu | Chairs tne ge age th oA EU Sp ead SRM CU LE CRUE 2,010 
WUE EON ELCRUICNIGO. 4 tte Gtavh nes eta) ere ena en Nat AUR a ld 1,425 


In addition to these items of physical equipment and finan- 
cial outlay, there would be a consolidation of the musical 
talent, better use of efficient Sunday-school teachers, and a 
better organization of church effort in every way. ‘This cata- 
loging of items is not given merely to show what could be 
expected if duplication and waste of expenditure, equipment, 
and effort were eliminated. Steel Creek Presbyterian Church, 
of North Carolina, exceeds this display in every item, from the 
pastor’s salary to the church building. It is able to do so 
only because it has a practical monopoly on church work in its 
community. 

A church, which is recognized as the sole and adequate re- 
ligious institution of the community, will rally to its support 
non-churech members, as well as members; it will attract to 
its service all members of the community; enroll in its Sun- 
day-school practically all the children of the Sunday-school 
age; and will become the natural social center of the com- 
munity in the promotion of every program which is not ade- 
quately cared for by some other agency. The author could 


248 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


not so confidently make this statement, if he had not person- 
ally known some half-dozen such churches, and if he did not 
have knowledge of a number of others. 

In an attempt to resolve the duplication and waste of effort, 
and eliminate conflict of religious purposes, a number of prac- 
tical community church arrangements have been worked out. 
These are: federation of churches, denominational trading, 
church union, and the monopoly of one denomination. In 
the federated church scheme, each congregation preserves its 
denominational integrity and each sect meets its own denomi- 
national obligations, but the combined membership meets in 
one house, supports one pastor, and consolidates all local 
church effort. Sometimes the pastorate rotates between the 
different denominations; sometimes the pastor proves so satis- 
factory to all concerned that he is retained for a number of 
years; and sometimes a minister who is not a member of any 
of the denominations represented in the federation is secured. 
The latter is probably the best plan, because it eliminates all 
suspicion and really makes the church, except as each of the 
original congregations is obligated to the overhead organiza- 
tion of its brotherhood. 

The denominational trade, or exchange, comes even nearer 
getting complete unity within the church than federation 
does. This scheme of organization is practiced in some places 
where two denominations find themselves with a church 
each in two different communities. One denomination has 
the stronger church in one community, and the weaker church 
in the other community. Each denomination agrees to with- 
draw its weaker church from the community where it is lo- 
cated, and allows the stronger denomination to monopolize 
the field. This demonstrates a worthy attitude on the part of 
church officials higher up, and on the part of the local con- 
gregations. The churches, each in their community, are 
known as denominational churches, however, which is likely to 
be a handicap in their effort to enlist adherents of other sects 
in the community. 

Two or more local churches of different denominations may 
agree to annul completely their sectarian loyalty, and form a 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM = 249 


strictly union church; or such a union church may be organ- 
ized in a community where no denomination has built a 
church. The difficulties,ywhich such churches have confronted 
in the past, are those of locating a thoroughly non-denomina- 
tional minister and of finding some overhead organization 
through which they can participate in the larger religious 
programs of the world. Missionary boards are all organized 
on a denominational basis, and these churches find it hard to 
tie up with missionary endeavors. 

There are numerous instances, even in the face of rampant 
denominational zeal, where some one denomination has de- 
veloped a church in the community which is so strong that no 
other denomination enters the community with a church- 
building program. In a number of other communities, one 
of a number of churches has survived the test of time, and 
now has a monopoly in the community. The weakness of this 
type of church is that members adherent to other creeds do 
not ally themselves with the church, and particularly do not 
feel obligated to support it. For these churches it can prob- 
ably be said, that they find little impulse for propagating 
sectarian doctrines and so do a fairly adequate community 
work. 

Practically every strong rural church in America is a church 
of one of these types. Few rural communities will, or can, 
support two strong churches. Whichever of these schemes of 
church organization is chosen by a community, or develops 
in a community—and there are numerous examples of each— 
that community has contributed to the practical solution of 
the rural church problem. 

An Adequate Church Leadership.—Churches need leaders 
of various kinds. They need pastors, church directors, or 
official boards, Sunday-school leaders, musical leaders, and, 
sometimes, leaders in recreation and club work. There is 
nothing that strikes the observer of the conduct of rural 
church affairs more forcibly than its failure to conduct even 
its Sunday school and church service in an expeditious and 
eficient manner. The members of the church board do not 
bring the same concern and hard-headed business judgment 


250 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


and vision into church affairs that they demonstrate in their 
own business affairs. Sunday-school teachers are woefully 
weak in both knowledge and teaching technique; music leaders 
are few; even the pastor is not equipped for ruralsleadership. 
The adequate church must be a large enough church to chal- 
lenge the best judgment and deepest concern of the official 
board. It must be a church of sufficient membership to have 
a large field from which to draw its musical and Sunday-school 
talent. It must conduct classes and institutes for training 
persons for these roles. It must have sufficient financial sup- 
port to employ a well-trained minister. 

Whether the pastor should be a skilled agriculturist, in addi- 
tion to being a trained church leader, is a mooted question. 
The author is convinced that he should be not only thoroughly 
rural minded, but that he should have a good knowledge of 
agriculture. We can scarcely expect him to be a graduate of 
an agricultural college in addition to being trained for re- 
ligious work. Certainly he should have training in rural so- 
ciology and agricultural economics. He should be apprised 
of this necessity while yet in college, so that he may realize 
the necessity of knowing agriculture. If his training in 
science, history, and economics has been adequate, and he 
consistently reads agricultural journals and takes a deep in- 
terest in the problems of farming, he will find himself well 
versed and with good judgment on farming. He cannot ex- 
pect to exert much influence with men who spend ninety-nine 
out of every hundred of their hours thinking upon these prob- 
lems, if he does not have a deep appreciation of their interests 
and problems. He cannot get this interest in any sleight of 
hand way, and he cannot successfully feign such interest when 
he does not have it. He must know farming. He must be 
actually interested in soils, crops, and animals. He must be 
a student of farm economics and social facts and conditions. 
If he must have part of an agricultural education in order to 
get these interests, this appreciation, and this knowledge, then 
he must be provided with such training, for the leadership of 
rural life in no small way depends on him. 

There are something lke 100,000 ministers in America who 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM — 251 


preach for rural churches. There is no group of men fune- 
tioning in rural life with the great opportunities that these 
men have. The very heart of their task is to promote things 
that foster and build a more abundant rural life. Practically 
everyone who comes to listen to them speak, comes in a re- 
ceptive frame of mind. They reach every age, sex, and type 
of person in rural life. They are supposed to be men who 
have had an opportunity to know the world of literature, 
science, history, politics, and business. They should be able 
to bring to the rural communities messages and visions that 
no other set of men can bring. The 100,000 rural preachers 
of America, if they were prepared with a technique and a 
vision of their tasks and opportunities, could re-make rural 
civilization in one generation. 

An Adequate Rural Church Program.—tThe principles upon 
which a rural church program should be projected are: 

1. That it will reach every member of the community, the 
aged and the young, the rich and the poor, the good and the 
bad, the church members and the non-church members. 

2. That it will reach each class of persons on the plane of 
its natural and dominant interest; that it will have some- 
thing that every person, no matter what his or her moral code, 
will see fit to use. This means it must reach the interests of 
farming, marketing, home affairs, community social life, 
recreation, education, and music. 

3. That it will do whatever needs to be done to uplift the 
community, but never attempt to re-do something that is 
already being done efficiently. 

4. That it will have a program which, if it were taken 
away, would be vitally missed by the community. 

5. That it will consistently compensate the community in 
known values for all the contributions made to the church. 
This means something more than “other-worldly” religion. 

6. That it will consistently work to enlist and prepare all 
members of the community for Christian activity. 

For the church to do everything which this code of prin- 
ciples demands, seems to some people to be impossible, and 
indeed it is impossible under present rural church organiza- 


202 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


tion. That the church should ever do all these things, is de- 
nied by many persons. Two simple, universally recognized 
truths justify every principle and every item in the program 
we have outlined. The church cannot perform its function 
to all people, if it fails to reach some of them. It cannot 
reach all people, unless it reaches each on the plane of his own 
interest. It is as futile for any agency of leadership to at- 
tempt to lead people by merely inviting them to come to it, 
as it is for one to try to lead a horse without going where the 
horse is. The task of Christianizing the rural community 
is not accomplished by deriding people for not heeding the 
preacher’s invitation to come to the church. The church must 
be taken to the people by means of a program that reaches 
every fiber of the community’s body and courses through the 
very blood of its life. If this means a program of recreation, 
for instance, well and good. There are three great values 
which will result from a recreation program: (1) Wholesome 
and constructive recreation is good within itself. (2) It will 
attract young people to the church, and lead them to know 
that religion deepens and enriches, rather than restricts, life. 
(3) It will train church leaders to know the values and poten- 
tialities resident in the buoyant life of the young people of 
the community. 

Everything that has been said in justification of a program 
of recreation can be said in justification of the other types of 
programs demanded by the development of the body of prin- 
ciples which we have outlined. 

It is possibly true that some churches and some ministers 
forget the central task of religion, because they become too 
dynamically interested in the program of social work and. 
social entertainment. If systematic and practical evangelism 
means something more than merely getting church members, 
if it means the development of purposes in the lives of people 
and Christianizing the community as a whole, then the church 
should seek to cooperate with every agency which is promot- 
ing the efficiency and the welfare of the community, but it 
should never duplicate the machinery or program of any 
other agency. 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM — 253 


OTHER RELIGIOUS AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 


The two chief agencies of religion, other than the church, 
that operate to any extent in rural communities, are the 
Y.M.C. A. and the Y. W.C. A 

The Work of the Young Men’s Christian Association in 
Rural Commumnties.—The Young Men’s Christian Association 
supplements the work of the rural and village churches and 
does many worth-while things which it would be difficult for 
churches to do. It works in the open country and small towns, 
and confines its program to those activities which do not de- 
mand association buildings or any elaborate outlay of equip- 
ment. The organization is a combination of volunteer effort 
and expert leadership. The country secretary is a college 
graduate, usually of the finest type; generally he has been a 
leader in religious, social, and athletic activities while at col- 
lege. Back of him he has a county committee of fifteen or 
twenty business men and farmers. These business men and 
farmers are assigned to subcommittees and local communities 
to help formulate the policies and promote the activities of the 
association. The association work is carried on upon the basis 
of community units. A local community leader is appointed, 
who assists the boys in all their activities and acts as a teacher 
of Bible lessons. 

The local community units meet in county meetings, ath- 
letic contests, banquets, and often in summer camps. The 
work is carried on in a number of counties and communities 
in the United States. The budget runs from $2,000 to $6,000 
per county, and is secured annually by voluntary subscriptions. 

The program of the association is never carried on in com- 
petition with church programs. The secretary works with the 
Sunday schools and churches, and encourages all his associa- 
tion boys to participate in church activities. Many times 
he is able to eliminate religious strife in the community. In 
addition to, or as a part of, the religious program, the country 
Y.M.C. A. promotes athletics and recreation programs. Many 
a country boy, otherwise robbed of the pleasure and values 


254 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


of athletic experience, is given the opportunity to participate 
in field meets, basket ball, baseball, and volley ball tourna- 
ments. The association promotes health practices and teaches 
health habits. In some of the larger and better-supported 
associations, an additional athletic director is employed. In 
some cases, traveling picture shows circulate from one com- 
munity to another. The association does anything and every- 
thing which encourages self-improvement, physical, mental, 
moral, and spiritual well-being, among young men and boys 
in small towns and rural districts. 

The country work is a definite branch of the national asso- 
ciation work. Above the counties are district organizations 
and district secretaries; above the districts are state organi- 
zations; and above the state organizations and secretaries is 
the national organization. The great summer conferences at 
Hollister, Missouri; Estes Park, Colorado; Lake Geneva, Wis- 
consin, and Blue Ridge, North Carolina, give as much time 
and effort to country work as to other branches of the na- 
tional work. 

The Young Women’s Christian Association.—The work of 
the Y. W. C. A. is not as widespread in rural communities as 
is that of the Y. M. C. A. The general purposes and prin- 
ciples of their activities are the same as those of the Y. M. C. A. 
They have county secretaries and county committees, and 
work without buildings and equipment. ‘Their slogan is 
“members, not equipment.” They conduct community, 
county, state, and national programs. They carry on recrea- 
tional, health, and religious programs. A national town and 
country conference has been held at Lake Geneva, Wiscon- 
sin, for the last seven years. The attendance at the confer- 
ence in 1919 was 234. 

In addition to the systematic country work, the Y. W. C. A. 
conducts Hight Week Club training, given in cooperation with 
student committees from colleges. During the summer of 
1919, 250 Eight Week Clubs were carried on. 

Summer camps, reading clubs, Bible classes, pageants, 
health exercises, and recreation programs constitute the work 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM — 255 


of the Y. W. C. A. in rural communities. It is needless to 
say that this type of work can well be accepted as a part of 
an adequate Rural Religious Program. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIAL 


Giut, C. O. and Pincnor, G., Six Thousand Country Churches, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York, 1920. 

Series of Books and Bulletins of the Committee on Social and Religious 
Surveys, Town and Country Studies, George H. Doran Company, New 
York, 1922 and 1923. 

Burterrievp, K. L., The Country Church and The Rural Problem, University 
of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1911. 

PHELAN, J., “Report of Committee on Country Church Function, Policy, 
and Program,” Readings in Rural Sociology, The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York, 1920. 

“Religion in Country Life,” Proceedings, Seventh National Country Life 
Conference, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1924. 


1Witson, E., Fifty Years of Association Work among Young Women, 
pp. 153-158, 292-296, National Board of the Young Women’s Christian As- 
sociation, 600 Lexington Ave., New York, 1916; and Report of the Natzonal 
Board of the Y. W. C. A. of the United States, Sixth National Convention, 
1920. 


CHAPTER XII 
THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 
THE FIELD AND FUNCTION OF RURAL EDUCATION 


The Problem of Rural Education.—The problems of rural 
education are much greater in scope and magnitude than 
merely the problems of the rural school. The task of teach- 
ing little children is not the sole task of education. Nor is 
the school the sole agency of teaching. The agencies of educa- 
tion consist of all technologies, or techniques, by means of 
which ideas and experiences are transmitted from one person 
to another. Persons learned long before there were schools. 
Schools are merely apt and well-organized pieces of social ma- 
chinery by means of which the experiences of other genera- 
tions are laid at the feet of each oncoming generation. As 
a matter of fact, they play a relatively small part in the 
total learning process of humanity. A child who enters the 
grade school at the age of six years, attends regularly for 
eight months out of the year, and completes the elementary 
or primary grades in eight years will have spent only about 6 
per cent of his waking hours in school. During all his re- 
maining waking hours, the child will have been learning, 
guided most of the time by stimuli other than those furnished 
by the school course of study. The greatest educational 
fallacy in the world is the belief, or assumption, that educa- 
tion consists of a set of learned categories, pyramided one 
on the other, from the a b c’s to graduation from college. 
Education consists in the learning process. The learning proc- 
ess, whether in school or elsewhere, consists in making adapta- 
tions and adjustments to, and utilizations of, the real con- 
ditions and circumstances of life. It is, therefore, the process 
of learning, the adaptations and adjustments, and the condi- 

256 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 207 


tions and circumstances of life that are important, not merely 
the school categories. 

Rural education, of whatever kind, is cast in the midst of 
the circumstances of farming and farm life. The greater 
majority of those born in the open country are reared there, 
and live out their lives in that environment. Every rural 
person, however, is more than a citizen of his local com- 
munity. He is a member of the Great Society. There is no 
reason why he should not have his life enriched by the his- 
tory, art, and literature of all ages. Furthermore, the coming 
of scientific and commercial agriculture demands that the 
modern farmer use the large bodies of scientific and business 
knowledge that are a part of the modern process of all civilized 
life. The problem of rural education is the problem of learn- 
ing to work, earn, live, and enjoy life, for the most part, 
though not altogether, in the open country. 

Agencies of Rural Education—Rural education, like all 
education, is generally thought of merely in terms of educa- 
tional institutions. To narrow the discussion of rural educa- 
tion to a consideration of the rural school, would be as foolish 
as to narrow the field of ideas to a consideration of books, 
merely because books contain ideas. The problem of the 
rural school is not comprehensive of the numerous problems 
of rural education; much less is the rural school the sole 
agent of rural education. The agencies of rural education 
range all the way from the agricultural college to rural social 
family gatherings. 

Some appreciation of the vast differences between mere 
agricultural education, the rural school, and a complete rural 
education may be obtained by listing the numerous agencies 
which are working in the field of rural education, many of 
which are not directly concerned at all with vocational train- 
ing or with the rural school. Such a list would include the 
rural grade school, the high school, the farm life or agricul- 
tural school, the agricultural college and university, the agri- 
cultural press, the country weekly, other newspapers and 
magazines, bulletins of the United States Department of Agri- 
culture, bulletins of State Departments of Agriculture, books, 


258 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


demonstration agents and other extension experts, public 
lectures—Chautauqua, lyceums, pulpit, ete—and rural 
libraries, rural fairs, rural life conferences, Y. M. C. A., 
Y. W. C. A., health, recreational, and other civic organi- 
zations. It must be clear that neither the agricultural college 
nor the rural grade school has a monopoly on the function or 
programs of rural education. 

There is such a vast difference between the problems of 
the rural school as an educational institution and the func- 
tion, purpose, and program of rural education itself, that we 
shall leave the problems of the rural school for separate treat- 
ment. In this chapter, we shall discuss the other agencies of 
education which operate in rural communities for the benefit 
of farm people. We shall consider as agencies those which 
operate with a consistent program, the purpose of which 
is to help farm people to make a progressive adjustment to 
the changing circumstances of life. This broad definition is 
stated, because it is conceived that a program of rural educa- 
tion is incomplete which is not projected on the basis of com- 
prehending the whole of rural life. 

Agricultural Education and Rural Education.—Queer as it 
may seem, there has never been any confusion between that 
type of education which is designed to prepare men for 
the occupation of agriculture, and that type which is pro- 
moted by rural schools. Indeed, the two have been so vastly 
different in their organization, conduct, and purpose, that it 
is well to raise the question as to whether they might not 
be more closely connected, or at least might not borrow some- 
thing from each other with profit. Everyone has understood 
agricultural education to be specific training for the occupa- 
tion of farming. Everyone has seemed equally to under- 
stand rural education to be that type of education which is 
obtained in the rural grade schools. Agricultural education 
has, until very recently, consisted of courses in technical agri- 
culture—Soils, Crops, Animal Husbandry, Horticulture, ete.— 
and the basic sciences necessary to the understanding and 
analysis of these technical factors, 7.e., Botany, Zoology, 
Chemistry, and Physics. Generally, the agricultural college 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 209 


curricula have also contained courses in English, Mathe- 
matics, and sometimes other so-called liberal and disciplinary 
courses. Recently the college authorities have seen the desir- 
ability, and even the necessity, of training both men and 
women for all-around efficient living on the farm. Some of 
them even give promise of recognizing the desirability of 
training these students for a well-rounded life in every way. 
To this end, they have not only added courses in those social 
sciences, which are strictly rural in nature, and other less tech- 
nically agricultural vocational courses, but have in some 
cases added even History, Literature, Modern Languages, 
General Economic and Commercial courses, and, furthermore, 
have developed extension divisions by means of which they 
are carrying education directly to the farm. 

With the expanding, or at least the liberalizing, of the 
agricultural college curricula on the one hand, and the push- 
ing back of the training for the vocation of agriculture into 
the secondary schools and even into the grade schools on the 
other hand, there has come to be a closer relationship between 
agricultural education and rural education. For a number of 
years there have been, here and there, agricultural high 
schools. Since the passing of the Smith-Hughes Vocational 
Iiducation Bill, there have developed hundreds of these Farm 
Life Schools. 


THE RURAL PRESS 


Agricultural Journals and Periodicals—Because farm 
journals are commercial enterprises, they are seldom thought 
of as agencies of education. When, however, we learn that 
the circulation of agricultural journals in the United States 
is over fifteen millions, we must recognize them as agencies 
with powerful educational value to rural people. It is im- 
possible to know exactly, but it is the author’s opinion that 
agricultural journals are read by at least one-half of the 
farm entrepreneurs of the nation. There are probably 500 
farmers, who get their scientific knowledge from farm papers, 
to every one who gets this knowledge from colleges of agri- 


260 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


culture. This was particularly true before the modern 
development of the elaborate extension services of the agri- 
cultural colleges. A college with 1,000 students studying 
agriculture is an institution of great proportions and great 
educational importance to farmers. There are thirty-seven 
farm journals published in the United States with over 100,000 
circulation each, ten with over 300,000, six with over 500,000, 
and one with over 1,000,000 circulation.’ 

Of course there are thousands of these papers circulated 
that are not read; and thousands of their pages are taken up 
with commercial advertisements. But there are thousands of 
them that are read and accepted as official manuals and guide 
books by hundreds of thousands of American farmers. These 
journals are generally edited by men whose advice is sound, 
and who write in a language which is easily understood by 
the farmer. Furthermore, the information which they give 
is current and up to date. 

Some appreciation of the type of men who edit these papers 
is gained by remembering that each of the Secretaries of 
Agriculture, in the cabinets of the last two presidents, was 
the editor of an agricultural journal. No official state or 
national agricultural conference of any importance is held, 
but that a goodly number of agricultural editors are called 
into council. There is not a section of the nation which 
does not number one or more editors of powerful agricultural 
journals among its leaders of rural progress. There are in- 
dividual editors of agricultural journals, whose influence has 
been more potent in agricultural leadership in the area where 
their papers circulate than the combined influence of any 
three agricultural colleges. There are thousands of farmers 
who value the advice of these editors above that of any other 
person, agency, or institution. Because this is true, we must 
name the agricultural press as one of the most potent of all 
the agencies of rural education. 

One of the chief criticisms of agricultural colleges is that 
they must necessarily organize their teaching into, and admin- 
ister it through, established curricula. Once the courses are 


*1922 American Newspaper Directory, N. W. Ayer and Son, Philadelphia. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 261 


set in these curricula, and the subject matter prescribed for 
the courses, they, like all other institutional phenomena, tend 
to crystallize. As a result, agricultural colleges often find 
themselves from five to fifteen years tardy in attacking per- 
tinent agricultural problems. The agricultural journals are 
more flexible. Consequently, they have been the first to begin 
instructing farmers in agricultural engineering, farm man- 
agement, veterinary science, farm marketing, rural social prob- 
lems, diversified farming, and even many phases of scientific 
production. Furthermore, they cover a much wider range of 
instruction than do the agricultural colleges. Farm journals 
give information on health and sanitation, good roads, recrea- 
tion, religion, and home and community organizations—sub- 
jects which agricultural colleges seem not to have recognized 
to any great extent as essential or valuable to farmers. Their 
editorial pages are often filled with discussion of civic affairs. 
They present stories, poems, and pictures which seek to 
idealize farm life. Indeed, the prime function and accepted 
role of the agricultural journal is the guidance of the rural 
dweller into a well-rounded knowledge of his occupation, and a 
deep appreciation of farm life. 

Agricultural journals, with their eminence and wide clientele, 
could be more potent agencies of rural education and more 
powerful leaders of rural progress than they are. Their failure 
to appreciate the comparative importance of certain rural- 
life issues is indicated in the table of facts on the following 
page. 

This table gives an analysis of the type of education these 
papers are conducting. These eight papers happen to rep- 
resent about 10 per cent of the total circulation of all the 
agricultural journals of the nation. An analysis of twenty 
different journals, during the years 1919 and 1920, gives almost 
the same percentages that appear in the above table. The 
chief exceptions are that some of the papers of the earlier 
study are specialized—fruit, dairy, and breeders’ papers. Con- 
sequently the per cent of space given to technical produc- 
tion ran higher, and the subjects of cooperation and market- 
ing were being given more attention and space at the later 
period. 


RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


262 


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THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 263 


Improvement could be made in the value of the agricultural 
journals as agencies in rural life building by giving more 
space to the institutional phases of farm life. In the study 
of the eight journals presented in the table, and in the pre- 
vious study of twenty papers, they were shown to be giving 
to each institution (to the rural home, the rural church, the 
rural school, and rural recreation) less than an average of 1 
per cent of their total space. They were giving but little over 
1 per cent of their total news and editorial space to each in- 
stitution. Farm-labor problems did not receive 1 per cent 
of the total space of any paper in either study. The relative 
importance given to the different items discussed in these 
papers, as indicated by the relative amount of news and 
editorial space given by them to different subjects, was: 
(1) technical production, (2) fiction and nature study, (3) 
marketing, (4) home and family, (5) cooperation other than 
marketing, (6) citizenship and politics, (7) education and 
schools, (8) social news and social contacts, (9) agricultural 
engineering, (10) health and sanitation, (11) transportation 
and communication, (12) recreation, and (13) labor. 

A questionnaire submitted to over one hundred students 
of rural life and agriculture, and teachers in the agricultural 
colleges of three institutions of higher learning representing 
three distinct sections of the nation, ranked these same thir- 
teen problems according to their importance in rural life in 
the following sequence: (1) education and schools, (2) home 
and family, (8) technical production, (4) marketing, (5) co- 
operation other than marketing, (6) health and sanitation, 
(7) church and religion, (8) transportation and communica- 
tion, (9) recreation, (10) labor problems, (11) citizenship 
and politics, (12) agricultural engineering, and (138) fiction 
and nature study. This combined judgment of nearly one 
hundred students of the problems of agriculture is by no 
means an absolute criterion of the educational need of farm 
communities, nor is it possible to establish any such criterion. 
It is presented here, simply to give a comparison, which makes 
possible a better understanding of the type of material the 


264 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


agricultural journals are using. We should keep in mind 
that the agricultural press is practically always a commer- 
cial enterprise, and must be conducted with an eye to busi- 
ness. Nevertheless, measure it by any accepted method, and 
we must appraise it as a universal and potent agency of 
rural education. 

The Country Weekly—There were 14,622 weekly papers 
published in the United States in 1922. This is about 1,500 
fewer than were published two years previous. The country 
weekly is without doubt a powerful agency of rural educa- 
tion. Its significance is, however, rapidly diminishing, be- 
cause of the competition of the now easily available daily 
paper. 

It is probably a safe estimate to say that over one-half 
of the weekly newspapers of the nation are “country week- 
lies.’ * Practically every town of 1,000 inhabitants has a 
newspaper. Hundreds of towns with yet smaller populations 
have weekly papers. Most towns have only one weekly news- 
paper. In such cases, this one paper is very likely to have 
almost a complete monopoly of its own town constituency 
and the constituency of the immediately adjacent rural ter- 
ritory. These country papers are not called upon to perform 
many functions, which they at one time served, since the 
advent of the city daily and national magazines into the 
country home. The country paper cannot compete with these 
powerful rivals as dispensers of world news, as agencies for 
circulating national advertisement, or in editorial erudition. 
It used to be the chief function of these small papers to relay 
the world’s news from the great dailies, magazines, and other 
metropolitan sources out into the country. Today, people 
take the dailies themselves. Whenever, therefore, the weekly 
is trying only to reflect the news and ideas presented in the 
greater papers, it is little read. Country people, like all the 
others, want the news while it is hot. 

Horace Greeley, a long while ago, laid down, in a letter 

*1922 American Newspaper Directory, N. W. Ayer and Son, Philadelphia. 


“Bing estimates about 10,000 in 1920, Brna, P. C., The Country Weekly, 
p. 3, D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1920. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 265 


to a prospective country editor, an apt creed for a country 
newspaper. He said: 


Begin with the clear conception that the subject of deepest in- 
terest to an average human being is himself; next to that he is most 
concerned about his neighbors. Asia and the Congo stand a long 
way after these in his regard. .. . Do not let a new church be 
organized, or new members be added to one already existing, a farm 
be sold, a new house be raised, a mill be set in motion, a store be 
opened, or anything of interest to a dozen families occur without 
having the fact duly, though briefly, chronicled in your columns. 
If a farmer cuts a big tree, or grows a mammoth beet, or harvests 
a bounteous yield of wheat or corn, set forth the fact as concisely 
and unexceptionally as possible. . . . In short, make your paper a 
perfect mirror of everything done in your county that your citizens 
ought to know.1 


The country weekly today ought to be distinctly a rural 
community service agency. It is no longer read by anyone 
except the small-town and open-country dwellers. It does, 
however, circulate more universally among these persons than 
and other type of publication. Its opportunity for influence 
is not only more universal than any other type of publication, 
but is as great as any other rural agency or institution except 
the rural home, and possibly the rural school. It must dis- 
cover a new niche, however, or gradually become of less im- 
portance. People within the circumference of its circula- 
tion read it for certain community values which it still has. 
It behooves the publishers and editors of these papers to 
find these values and magnify them, and to discover new 
values and develop them. A detailed study of 243 country 
weeklies in Missouri and 73 in North Carolina discovered the 
following facts: 

1. These 243 papers contained 205,588 total column inches 
of space. 

2. Of the 205,558 column inches contained in these papers, 
almost exactly 75 per cent were materials of strictly local 
interest. The other 25 per cent was made up of national, 


*Quoted from Brine, P. C., The Country Weekly, pp. 17-18 


266 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


syndicate, boiler plate, patent inside, fiction, and clipped 
materials. 

3. Of all space given to local materials, 73.4 per cent was 
given to town interests, and 26.6 per cent was given to strictly 
rural interests. 

4. As the size of the town increased in which these papers 
were published, a decreasing per cent of the local space was 
given to strictly local material. 

5. Of the total editorial space, 69.49 per cent was given 
to local editorials. 

6. Ninety-two per cent of all local editorial space was 
given to town interests, and 7.3 per cent to rural interests. 

7. Only 38.56 per cent of the total news space was given to 
local news. The remaining 61.74 per cent was given to na- 
tional news, syndicate news, clipped news, patent insides, and 
boiler plate. 

8. Of the local news 82.2 per cent was town news, and only 
17.8 per cent was country news. 

9. Of the total advertising space, 77.8 per cent was given 
to local advertising. 

10. Of all local advertising, 68.9 per cent was town, and 
31.1 per cent was country advertising. By country adver- 
tising, was meant advertisement of goods to be bought or sold 
mainly by country people. 

11. The smallest per cent of total space was given to edi- 
torials, in the case of those papers that had 25 per cent or 
less of their circulation in the country, and the greatest per 
cent in the case of those that had over 75 per cent of their 
circulation in the country. 

12. The per cent of total space given to news was very 
much less in the case of those papers that had 25 per cent, 
or less, of their circulation in the open country. It increased 
steadily as the per cent of circulation going to the country 
increased. 

13. The percentage of local news, which was strictly coun- 
try news, was only 15.2 per cent. It was greatest (16.4 per 
cent) in the case of those having from 51 to 75 per cent of 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 267 


country circulation, and much the lowest in the case of those 
papers having 25 per cent or less of country circulation. 

Slightly less than 60 per cent of these papers had. over 
50 per cent of their circulation in country homes, and slightly 
over 60 per cent of the total reading space went to country 
homes. This fact, plus the fact that almost 93 per cent of 
them were published in towns of 4,000 population or less, 
makes these weekly papers almost wholly country papers. 
The editors of these papers have come to recognize the fact 
that they are local papers, as is indicated by the fact that 
over 60 per cent of their total space is given to local interests. 
They have not yet come to recognize that they are almost 
completely country papers, as is indicated by the fact that 
less than 20 per cent of their total local space is given to 
country interests. This is the chief cause of the lack of vitality 
among country newspapers, and the chief criticism of them 
as agencies of country service and rural progress. 

If the country weekly is to survive, if it is to perform the 
function which it alone can perform, it must become rural, 
even agricultural, in its vision, content, and purpose. It will 
continue to be published in small towns, but small towns 
are a part of country communities. These country com- 
munities—small towns, and their surrounding open country 
districts—need some agency to make them community con- 
scious. The local paper can most aptly do this. Its editorials 
must be rural-community-civie editorials. Its news must be 
local rural community news. Its advertisement columns must 
be largely local community service columns. This means that 
country weeklies need to be a combination of newspapers and 
agricultural journals. They need to tie up with the county 
and home demonstration agents, the county superintendents 
of schools, the county superintendents of public welfare, 
county health officials, rural church and community programs, 
technical agricultural interests, good roads movements, and, 
in fact, with every other thing which is of vital concern to 
rural people and which needs editorial support, news report- 
ing, or advertising. To what extent these papers are doing 
these good things is likely to be overlooked, because of our 


268 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


criticism of their weaknesses. To magnify and multiply their 
service to rural communities is their field and task. When 
they do this, their thousands of weekly issues and hundreds 
of thousands of weekly pages will constitute dynamic agencies 
for rural education. 


READING MATERIAL IN RURAL HOMES 


Types of Rural Home Reading Materials—The types of 
reading materials generally found in farm homes include, in 
addition to the two types just discussed in detail, daily papers, 
religious papers, national periodicals, books, and bulletins. 
It would be impossible, by merely checking the frequency of 
their appearance in the homes, to calculate which of these 
types of literature has the greatest influence on the people. 
Even if we could ascertain these facts, we would not yet 
have a measure of the comparative influence of the different 
types. Since, however, each type of reading material is a 
potential agency of education, we shall attempt to give some 
understanding of each, and its significance to rural dwellers. 
A number of surveys have been made, which have gathered 
information concerning the types and amount of reading ma- 
terials found in rural homes. Probably altogether too much 
is said about the comparative paucity of reading material 
found in country homes. Only one limited survey has been 
made, which discovered and set forth a comparison between 
country and town homes in this respect.. This study showed 
that the amount of current reading materials found in homes 
of farmers, and in the homes of a small town, is about the 
same. It is probable that the average farm home reading 
materials rank far above those of the average city day laborer; 
compare favorably with that of the city business man, but 
rank below that of the professional man. 

The following series of tables is given as representative 
of the best information available on reading materials in farm 
homes. The first three tables are from studies of typical well- 


*RankKIN, J. O., “Reading Matter in Nebraska Farm Homes,” Bulletin 
No. 180, Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1922. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 269 


to-do mid-western farm communities. The fourth table is 
from a study of a mid-western community made up chiefly 
of tenant and hired-man families. The last table is from a 
study of three Southern farm communities. 

There are unquestionably thousands of farm communities 
and hundreds of thousands of farm homes that have more 
and better reading material than any of these tables show. 
A survey of forty homes in Ashland Community, Howard 
County, Missouri, discovered that there was an average of 


TaBLeE 34.—ReEapiInG MATERIAL IN 107 Nesraska Farm Homes} 


All Homes Owners Tenants 
Per Per Per 
Number Geng Number rere Number cinte 
‘Lotal number... ..o. . 107 41 66 
Take newspaper...... 107 100 41 100 66 100 
Take farm paper..... 106 99.1 40 97.5 66 100 
Get books from library] 28 26.4 17 41.4 11 16.6 


TaBue 35.—Tue NuMBER oF Books In THE Homes oF 306 CEenTRAL MISSOURI 
FarMERs! 


Owner Tenant 





Number of Books 
Number Piper Number Par 


fof of 
Homes Cent Homes ane 
IND EMOOICS SU stu Le A ents ert etasts 2s sic ts ee 16 6.69 9 13.43 
PL MEGUE LM EDOOKS 7 ihc dh kates oa. erate’) ies, 31.38 19 28 .35 
RU POLOUP OsOURDOOKS teh Set 2. me ok: 43 18.00 Lif 25.37 
Bi) GOPOUgaIs OO DOOKsE es Mole, ell aah 41 This 9 13.43 
POE GHLOUs Dt CUORDOOK Sits atest. chitad cue 20 8.36 3 4.48 
ZOT through S00 books 578. hilt) Ihe. 28 1172 6 8.96 
Bet nroueh OU DOOKS wes ur ylides: 6 2ebl 4 5.95 
PU COTOURN OULDOOKS ivi. ea taka 2 4 1.67 0 0.00 
Tou tnrough 1,000 books. 7... fs...) e252 6 2epib 0 0.00 
PU GGAD 2, bc snth eer an na nto ar h gtL 239 99.98 67 99.97 


* Data from unpublished manuscript by author. 


270 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


TasLe 36.—THEe NumBer or Papers, MAGAZINES, AND BULLETINS IN Homes 
oF 306 CenTraL Missourt Farmers! 





Owner Tenant 

Class of Publication Per Per 
Number NES Cent |‘Number pha Cent 
Received not |Received ; notj 

BeaDILY Getting pee Getting | 
Daily newspapers....| 332 1.37 16.6 71 1.04 | 25.37 
Weekly newspapers...| 328 1.37 32.2 rp 1.04 49.25 
Religious papers.....| 133 .55 69.8 rel 1.04 | 34.32 
Harm papers... 4%. 403 1.65 28.4 19 120k hhc 
Magazines. .......... 248 1.03 50.2 83 1.20 | 35.82 
Agricultural Bulletins.| 1002 59.1 19%; LLG 


TABLE 37.—READING MATERIALS IN THE Homes OF FARM FAMILIES IN A 
SouTHEAST Missourr Community ! 


41 Owners | 180 Tenants | 29 Croppers gdp 


Types of Material Total | Per |'Total | Per (Total. Per (borieanan 


Hav- | Cent | Hav- | Cent | Hav- | Cent | Hav- | Cent 
ing | Hav-| ing | Hav-| ing | Hav- | ing | Hav- 


ing ing ing ing 
Daily papers........ 23 | 56.1 62 | 34.4 2 6.9 8 4.5 
Weekly papers...... SOW ded skal Leen Odeo. Slee eG 47 | 26.4 
Religious papers....{ 11 | 26.8 | 27 15.00} 0O 0.0 10 5.61 
Farm papers........ 36 | 87.8 | 125 69.4 10 | 34.5 52 | 29.2 
Weekly magazines..}| 13 | 31.7 | 38 | 21.1 3 10.3 16 8.9 
Monthly magazines .| 20 | 48.8] 53 | 29.4 4 sl AL 31 17.4 
United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture 
Billetings (esi h 14 B41 82 alias 1 3.4 0 0.0 
Missouri Department 
of Agriculture 
bulletins s3 ei, 2).. 11) 26:8 121 NU ere 0 0.0 0 0.0 
College of Agriculture 
bulletins eee ss OOF ALLO eal 10 7 0 0.0 0 0.0 
Health bulletins..... N 2.4 6 3.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 
Having none........ 1 PARE TG Bo | ad ah er Les 91°..} 61y1 


‘Data from study made by author (unpublished). 
* Means only that this many families get some agricultural bulletins. No 
information was gotten as to the frequency of receipt of bulletins. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 271 


117.5 books and seven newspapers and magazines per home. 
One of these homes had a library of 634 books, and another 
had a library of 500 books. Nine of them had libraries of 
over 250 books each. One family took sixteen periodicals 
and newspapers. Two families, who subscribed for their maga- 
zines in common, had twenty-seven different periodicals 
coming into their homes. These homes averaged forty-seven 
and five-tenths volumes of fiction, seven of history, four and 
three-tenths of agriculture, four and two-tenths of religion, 


TABLE 38.—Typres or Booxs In Homes or Farm Famiuies IN A Soutu- 
EASTERN Missourrt Community ! 


179 Hired 


41 Owners | 180 Tenants | 29 Croppers Mat 


Type of Book Pataliebereiulotal meron dd Per | Total| Per 


Hav- | Cent | Hav- | Cent | Hav- | Cent | Hav- | Cent 
ing | Hav-| ing | Hav-| ing | Hav-| ing | Hav- 


ing ing ing ing 
BUGIS fain. (oe 41 |100.0 | 160 | 88.9 | 24 | 82.8 | 143 | 80.3 
POTICUILUTE. Jad...» 22 | 53.6] 44 | 24.4 1 3.4 14 7.9 
SMO se eels ws 2 i 25 | 60.9] 60 | 33.3 4 13,8 sol p2ls3 
LEYS (oni, Sia aa 15) 1°36:6)| 48 4) 26.7 3B LO. Sess 18.4 
Peben So. id. ys» 17 | 41.4] 48 | 28.9 1 Si4yh 3260.) 14-7 
UA ETS EION Sie ta 16 | 39.0-| 77 | 42.8 | 10 | 34.5.| 80 } 44.9 
iagine none... ..°.. 0 0.0 5 2.8 4 13.8 26 14.7 


TasLe 39.—PerR CrEenT or Faminies wHo Borrow Books In THREE TYPICAL 
Norta Carouina Farm CounrtiEs! 


Operator Owner 


Landlords Operators Pea Sia 
Region 
White | Black | White | Black | White | Black | White | Black 
Coastal Plain....... PAVE heat aes Pipe Ort Loe Odie. sae Gi. Oi ah eter 
PATON. . 6 8a ok ws SiON eee ae HCE LA lee hele Pd ba A Bai RR ae ed A oc 
PLT GAIT te ars os se ZOE Se eee te: 27435) eee 1 On ee 1.97 (eae 
VOCAL ee 1 Ey oll hs aa (Gest wa Goro Lbechley ones GSA) ie one 





*Unpublished studies made by the author. 


272 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


TABLE 40.—Kinp or Booxs In Homes IN THREE TypicaAL NortTH CAROLINA 
Farm FamI.ies! 


Group Land Land- White Black All 


Owners less 


——— | | | | 


Per cent religious. ......:.--- 1 
Per cent agricultural.......... 
Per centsfiction\ ey. yee. eo eee 


three and nine-tenths of science, two of health, and one of 
war. The only two homes in the community that did not 
have real home libraries were those of two foreign tenants. 
One of these had no books, and the other had only children’s 
school books.” This community stands as far at one extreme 
in the Middle West, as the North Carolina or Southeast Mis- 
sourl community does at the other extreme. 

Some of the most outstanding generalizations which can 
be deduced from this series of tables are as follows: 

1. That the most prevalent type of current reading mate- 
rials found in farm homes are agricultural or farm journals. 
The second most prevalent type is daily papers, although the 
dailies are outranked by the weeklies in the Southeast Mis- 
souri community. The third most prevalent type is the coun- 
try weekly, and the fourth most prevalent type is the 
magazine. 

2. Farm owners universally have a greater volume and 
greater diversity of reading materials in their homes than do 
farmers of any other tenure status. 

3. The farm families in the Southern communities have 
less reading materials of all kinds in their homes than do those 
of the Middle West. 

4, Practically no health bulletins or agricultural bulletins 

* Taytor, Cart C. and ZimMerMAN, C. C., Economic and Social Conditions 
of North Carolina, North Carolina State College, North Carolina, 1922. 

* TayLor, Cart C, and Lenmann, E. W., An Economic Social and Sanitary 


Survey of Ashland Community, Howard County, Missouri, Missouri Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, Columbia, Missouri, 1920. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 273 


are found in the homes of the farmers of the lower tenure 
status. 

5. Tenant, cropper, and hired-man farm families fall much 
further below farm owners in book equipment than they do 
in current reading materials. 

No attempt has been made, in any of these studies, to ascer- 
tain which type of home reading materials is most univer- 
sally and constantly read by farm folk. It is impossible even 
to judge reading habits altogether by presence of books in 
rural homes. Many times a family library is an accumula- 
tion of a number of generations, and thus sometimes the 
most prevalent type of books in the home library is not the 
type most used. Religious, health, history, and war books 
are often more the results of book agents’ zeal than they are 
the results of some person’s craving for these types of litera- 
ture. Some indication, however, has been gotten of the 
types of books read and desired by rural persons. O. 8. Rice 
of the State Superintendent’s office of Wisconsin found, from 
a survey of books in 150 Wisconsin high schools, that there 
was very little difference between country and city boys in 
the preference of books. All the books chosen by both city 
and country boys were fiction.? 

The author made a direct study of 1,809 of the books which 
were circulated in rural communities by the North Carolina 
Library Commission in 1921. These unit boxed libraries had 
circulated in sixty-one different communities, been read by 
people of all ages, and offered practically every legitimate 
type of book which one would want to read. The following 
table presents the finding of that study: 

The following conclusions are warranted from facts re- 
vealed in all of these studies of rural reading materials: 

1. That daily, weekly, and farm papers are becoming almost 
universal in farm homes. 

2. That practically every farm home has some sort of a 
library. 

3. That owners almost universally have better reading 


1Dunceon, M. S., “The Rural Book Hunger,” Rural Manhood, Vol. VI, p. 
303, September, 1915. 


274 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


TABLE 41.—FREQUENCE OF USE oF DIFFERENT KINDS OF Books 


Per 
Type of Book! Peer aes Rae Times | Cent of 
Circulation | Circulation Read Total 
Read 
HIGTION Car eas ai atoike ceric a 938 46.3 2,630 51.4 
Ghildren’s books’. G5)... eee 624 34.4 1,730 33.7 
FListory ys i eo eee ie Gee Glee 149 8.2 350 6.8 
Usengl arts.v: fete Geter ere ee 15 4.1 129 2.3 
Pilosophy taht. co ay ake ee 28 1.5 69 1.3 
DOCIOLOOY Hii ta othe Ak cee Men nanere | 30 1.6 58 1.4 
Literature (Poetry etc.).......... 19 1,05 35 .65 
Pine arte Fe. SPF eee ae es 13 ia Sa .62 
Relivionyik'y so cent Wee eet ec Pa 9 .49 31 .60 
General works 5 iW onsen ce 12 .66 28 54 
Watural science nay ee es aoe 12 66 24 47 








1 That the preference of books read was dictated somewhat by the numbers of different types 
of books presented, we do not doubt. The Commission works on an experimental basis, however, 
and aims to supply whatever demand is made for legitimate books. 


equipment than tenants, and tenants better than croppers 
and hired men. 

4. That the number of books, papers, and magazines that 
are in the home are in direct proportion to the amount of 
education the farmers and farmers’ wives have. 

5. That farm people use books readily if given an oppor- 
tunity. 

6. That their choice of books is perfectly normal and healthy 
in every way. 

This final conclusion is not apparent in any of the tables 
presented, but was found to be correct whenever the facts 
were checked. Some additional information will be pre- 
sented on the topic of reading material in farm homes in the 
section on rural libraries. 

The Rural Library——The books made available for public 
use by the recent establishment of public libraries are not 
utilized by rural people in the degree that they are by city 
people. All of the great public libraries are located in great 
cities. Recently the public library movement has spread to 
smaller cities and rural towns. These libraries are quite 
universal now in towns of 10,000 population, and hundreds of 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 275 


county seats with from 2,000 to 5,000 population have them. 
Nevertheless, only 794 out of the 2,964 rural counties in the 
United States have, within their borders, a public library of 
5,000 volumes or more. The libraries, other than those of 
their homes, from which rural people draw books are, those 
of other families, public school libraries, Sunday-school and 
church libraries, commercial libraries, state, county, and town- 
ship circulating libraries, and nearby town libraries. 

If books can be purchased by some common fund and cir- 
culated through some common medium, they will be read by 
many times more people than if they depend upon individuals, 
who would read them but once after purchasing them. With- 
out doubt, the greatest thing that could be done to encourage 
wider reading among rural people would be to develop 
adequate and well-located public libraries. Dudgeon, in an 
article entitled “The Rural Book Hunger,” presents a rather 
dark picture of such a need.* On the other hand, there are 
some very bright sides, discovered in the facts concerning 
the use, by rural people, of such library facilities as are avail- 
able to them. Vogt says that nearly 100,000 volumes per 
year are circulated from the Brumbark Library, Van Wert 
County, Ohio. The free public library at Stockton, California, 
serves thirty communities and twenty-two school districts with 
free books. The main library has a rural circulation of 
6,281 volumes.* Dudgeon says that in three rural homes with- 
out a book in them, sixteen out of seventeen of the children 
had read books from traveling libraries, and that these six- 
teen had read sixty-one books from the library. 

The North Carolina Library Commission circulated 11,047 
books, and the cards showed 2,000,000 book loans in ninety- 
six counties in 1921. The number had increased 181 per cent 
in two years. In the Southeast Missouri Community, referred 
to above, which was almost wholly a tenant-cropper hired man 
community, 36 per cent of the owners, 22 per cent of the 
tenants, 8 per cent of the hired men and 7 per cent of the crop- 

*Dupceon, M. S., “The Rural Book Hunger,” Rural Manhood, Vol. VI, 


p. 303, September, 1915. 
““The Library at Your Door,” Farm Journal, Novy. 22, 1921, 


276 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


pers borrowed books from neighboring school or town libraries. 

The American Library Association has taken for its slogan 
“Books for everybody.” Its purpose is to extend its service 
to rural districts. It is now raising a fund of $2,000,000 to 
establish better library facilities for country people. It is 
already operating “libraries on wheels’—in wagons and 
trucks—in a number of isolated rural communities. 

Iowa has a library of 50,000 books for the use ef country 
people. A number of other states also operate library service 
for rural people. Wisconsin expends about $6,500 per year 
on rural school libraries. This money is raised by taxation. 
The same is true of Nebraska. The county library is also 
developing. Garfield County, Oklahoma, appropriated $2,000 
in 1921 to start a county library. The county library should, 
and will, follow the path of progress mapped out by the good 
roads, Rural Free Delivery, demonstration agents, and con- 
solidated schools. Indeed each of these will be an agency 
to promote the library movement. What is needed is a sys- 
tem of school, community, township, county, and state 
libraries supported by public taxation; liberal concession from 
the post office department by way of rates on circulating books, 
and a deeper appreciation of the educational value of all 
kinds of literature. 


EXTENSION EDUCATION 


Education through Demonstration.—The greatest piece of 
technical agricultural education work being done in the 
United States is that of the farm and home demonstration 
agents and agricultural extension workers. This work is 
logically, and generally actually, a part of the extension work 
of the colleges of agriculture. Because it has not universally 
been tied up with the colleges, because it is cooperatively sup- 
ported by the federal government, the states and the counties, 
and because there is some slight indication that it may come 
to be supported in part or totally by organized farmer groups 
themselves, it is discussed as an agency in itself. From the 


——— eee 


o —— 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 217 


viewpoint of the College of Agriculture, the demonstration 
work is extension teaching. From the viewpoint of the 
farmer, it is practical farm experimentation toward the pro- 
duction of better farming methods in local communities. 

As a result of the great need for farm efficiency which had 
existed during the World War, demonstration work reached 
the peak of its development in 1918-1919. As a systematic 
scheme of rural education, it was started in Kaufman County, 
Texas, in 1903 under the guidance of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, 
and under the direction of the United States Department of 
Agriculture. During the fiscal year of 1918-1919 there were 
more than 2,400 men agents and almost 2,000 women agents 
in demonstration work. Almost four-fifths of the agricul- 
tural counties of the nation had men agents and almost two- 
thirds of them had women agents. Funds appropriated by 
the federal, state, and county units reached the total of $15,- 
671,000 for that year. Nearly 3,000,000 men and women and 
2,000,000 boys and girls were enlisted in the work. The 
number of agents has diminished since that time and the 
government has withdrawn some of the funds. Local funds 
have so nearly replaced them, however, that the annual 
expenditure per year at this time (1922) is still almost 
$15,000,000." 

The function and method of demonstration work can prob- 
ably be set forth best by a quotation from its originator, Dr. 
Seaman A. Knapp. Dr. Knapp said: ? 


The Farmers’ Demonstration work may be regarded as a method 
of increasing farm crops and as logically the first step toward true 
uplift, or it may be considered a system of rural education for boys 
and adults by which a readjustment of country life can be effected 
and placed upon a higher plane of profit, comfort, culture, influence, 
and power. 


W. W. Finley, former president of the Southern Railroad, 
in an address at the State Teachers’ Association of South Car- 
olina, in 1912, said: 

* Martin, O. B., The Demonstration Work, pp. 102-182, Stratford Company, 


Boston, 1921. 
LOU.) Dp.) Oa. 


278 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Splendid as have been the results of Dr. Knapp’s cooperative farm 
demonstration work, I believe that by far the most important thing 
he ever undertook was the inauguration of the Boys’ Corn Club 
Work. The immediate and primary effect of this work is seen not 
only in the records of the large yields made by individual members 
of the Boys’ Corn Clubs throughout the South, but in the increasing 
yield per acre in all the states resulting from the stimulation of 
interest in the best cultural methods and in seed selection. If the 
Boys’ Corn Clubs had done nothing more, their records would stand 
as an imperishable monument to the memory of Dr. Knapp. But 
in my opinion the most important results are not in the raising 
of corn, but in the raising of farmers. They are essentially agri- 
cultural schools. The boy who hopes to make creditable showing 
or a record-breaking crop, and to do so by methods that will yield 
a profitable margin over the cost of production, must be a student. 
The members of the Boys’ Corn Clubs not only acquire theoretical 
and practical knowledge as to the best methods of growing corn, but 
I believe that their work in these clubs tends to imbue them with 
a thirst for knowledge and that they will grow up into scientific 
and progressive farmers, whose work will lift the standard of agri- 
culture throughout the nation. 


This rather elaborate quotation is given to set forth the 
educational significance of just one small segment of demon- 
stration teaching. There are today thousands of these boys’ 
corn, pig, and calf clubs in the United States. Hundreds of 
farm boys who got their first inspiration in scientific agri- 
culture in these junior demonstrations have since availed 
themselves of college education and returned to the farm as 
rural-life leaders. In fifteen Southern states, in 1918, there 
were 9,026 girls’ clubs organized by home demonstration 
agents. These clubs had a total membership of 286,278. What 
the corn, pig, and calf clubs have done, and will do, for the 
farm boys, the canning, cooking, and sewing clubs have done, 
and will do, for the farm girls. 

Demonstration and extension teaching have developed to 
such proportions that it is impossible to give here anything 
more than the barest picture of its attainment, method and 
program. Mr. Lever probably set forth the heart of the 

*Tbid., pp. 50-51. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 279 


method of education when he said in a report to the Com- 
mittee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives: 


The fundamental idea of the system of demonstration or itinerant 
teaching, presupposes the personal contact of the teacher with the 
person being taught, the participation of the pupil in the actual 
demonstration of the lesson being taught, and the success of the 
method proposed. It is a system which frees the pupil from the 
slavishness of the textbooks, which makes the field, and even the 
parlor and the kitchen, classrooms. It teaches us to learn to do by 
doing! As President Wilson said: “It is the kind of work which, 
it seems to me, is the only kind that generates real education”; 
that is to say, the demonstration process and the personal touch 
with the man who does the demonstration! 4 


The chief significance of the demonstration work is not, 
however, that it is teaching by demonstration, though it was 
not acceptable to the farmer until it did demonstrate, nor 
would it ever have attained the proportion which it has reached 
by any other technique. The chief significance of the work 
is that it is reaching hundreds of thousands of farm men, 
women, boys and girls, who would not now be marching in 
the van of technical farm and educational progress if 1t were 
not for this type of teaching. 

The heart of the demonstration and extension work is the 
county demonstration agent. Through the farm and home 
demonstration agents, the College of Agriculture, State De- 
partment of Agriculture, Experiment stations, United States 
Department of Agriculture, and even many other agencies, 
register their educational potency. The whole system works 
as a thoroughly coordinated institution. It reaches, in one 
way or another, every farm community in the United States. 
It reaches every age of individual on the farm. It ties up the 
nation, state and local units of government in a cooperative 
program of rural education. While in its beginning it was 
concerned solely with technical production, it now compre- 
hends all phases of rural education and efficiency, from better 
nutrition for, and care of, babies to matters of pure tech- 
nical production. Demonstration and extension education 

* Ibid., p. 39. 


280 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


comes more nearly putting into the lives of the people every 
thing which rural communities need than any other agency 
in the whole field of rural education. 

Agricultural and Community Fars.—Agricultural and rural 
community fairs are educational agencies which teach by 
demonstration exhibit, and pageantry. They are of many and 
various kinds. The “County Fair’ is probably the best 
known. The fact that the county fair has developed into 
a combination of a street carnival and horse racing in many 
sections has given the whole fair idea something of a black 
eye. Recently, however, agricultural and community fairs 
have come to take their place in the modern movement of 
dynamic rural education. The influence of demonstration 
and extension teaching, the introduction of agricultural edu- 
cation in the primary and secondary schools, and the general 
enlightenment of farm people have developed fairs with 
greater educational value than any type of rural fair which 
existed previous to the advent of the carnival and the pro- 
fessional horse race. 

Fairs are now being presented and conducted along legiti- 
mate lines by schools, communities, townships, counties, states, 
cities, farm bureaus, granges, farmers’ Unions, agricultural col- 
leges, and other less easily defined agencies. Colleges of Agri- 
culture and the United States Department of Agriculture now 
issue bulletins setting forth methods for organizing and con- 
ducting such fairs, and the value which may be gotten from 
such demonstration and exhibit. The programs of these fairs 
promote every phase of the social and economic life of rural 
people. 

The local community fair especially has developed into a 
most valuable educational agency. The exhibits are generally 
few enough in number that the awards can be fully explained. 
Score cards can be used by means of which the fine, and exact 
points of merit can always be explained. The exhibits can 
be fully classified so that every type of product and every 
phase of community activity can be separately presented. 
Exhibits can be presented per farm, per home, per school, or 
on the base of any other unit. The diversified farm the “live- 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 281 


at-home” or “food-and-feed farm,’ the ‘“home-convenience 
house,” and other features of social and economic value which 
are being practiced in the local community can be placed on 
exhibit for the benefit of the whole community. All sorts of 
judging contests among the boys and girls of the community 
can be carried on under the direction of the farm and home 
demonstration agents or some other expert. Group and com- 
munity games can be demonstrated and taught. School and 
community pageants can be staged. In fact, everything which 
has to do with farming and farm life can be exhibited, dem- 
onstrated, and taught and there can be developed a com- 
munity knowledge and pride of its own best self, presented 
through the agency of the rural community fair. 

County and state agricuitural fairs should carry these same 
methods and values to a greater development and on a greater 
scale. The best exhibits could, and should, be taken to the 
county fairs and the best exhibits of the counties should be 
taken to the state fairs. States located in the same general 
agricultural belt could well afford to stage interstate fairs. At 
each of the greater fairs, whole communities, counties, and 
states can present unit exhibits. Every one of the things 
suggested here is being practiced in one or many places. 
States, particularly those that are dominantly agricultural, 
should organize fair departments which would unify and 
magnify the whole technique and value of this type of 
education. 


OTHER RURAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 


The Public Platform.—A type of education which is likely 
to be classified as entertainment is that which is offered by 
way of the public platform. There are dozens of platform 
performances which furnish education of one or another kind 
to farmers. 

There is scarcely a community in the thickly, or even mod- 
erately settled, areas of the United States which does not 
have its annual Chautauqua or Lyceum program. Many com- 
munities have the Chautauqua during the summer and the 


282 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


lyceum course during the winter. Keith Vawter says, 
“Broadly speaking, we believe the Chautauqua to be a rural 
institution.” It is an institution which thrives best and prob- 
ably performs its best service in county seats and smaller 
towns. The following table shows this to be true: 


TABLE 42.—STATISTICS ON SEVEN CHAUTAUQUA COMPANIES ! 


Per Cent of he Cent of Per Cent of | Per Cent of | Giving 
Performances}. "-01™2)C€S| Performances| Attendance Special 


Company in Towns of | ee pie of in Towns of | by Rural Farmer 
Over 2,500 10 aa Over 10,000 People Programs 
AS cacy 75 20 5 75 No 
Benes 75 10 15 15 No 
COME 100 0 0 50 No 
Dir iee Shee 40 52 8 20 Yes 
Bie ee 82 14 4 10 Yes 
EAE AY eae 80 15 5 20 No 
Gongs eet ae 50 40 10 25 Yes 


1Information furnished by the seven leading Chautauqua Companies of the 
United States. 

Two of the Chautauqua companies, who do not have special 
programs or lectures for farmers now, have had such programs 
in the past, but have discontinued them. They assert that 
farmers desire entertainment, and not “shop talk,’ from the 
Chautauqua platform. Practically all the companies assert 
that it is difficult to find suitable farm subjects and suitable 
speakers for the Chautauqua type of program. All are agreed 
that any Chautauqua lecture intended especially to appeal to 
farmers must be upon community problems and not upon 
technical agriculture. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the Chautauqua companies 
are not trying to teach the farmer how to farm, they are offer- 
ing him education as well as entertainment. Probably the 
most cosmopolitan education farmers get is from such plat- 
forms. Every aspect of life and interest of moment, every 
civic problem and every corner of the earth is explained, or 
exhibited, from these platforms. Farmers make up a goodly 
portion of the Chautauqua audiences. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION 283 


Civic and Welfare Organizations as Agencies of Education. 
—We need do little more than name the other agencies of 
rural education and leave their fuller development for other 
places. State and county health officials, bulletins, exhibits, 
and pageants, Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., Community Service 
Incorporated, and other agencies have definitely organized 
educational programs. State, county and community councils 
and many other agencies, with specific religious, recreational, 
and other types of programs contribute to different phases of 
rural education. 

The main point that this chapter has sought to develop is 
that a tremendous educational program is developing in rural 
communities, that a thorough understanding of the rural life 
movement forbids us restricting rural education to mere school 
education and that a rational attack upon the problem bids us 
to utilize all the agencies discussed in this chapter and bids 
these various agencies magnify their programs, functions and 
values toward the end of developing enlightenment and prog- 
ress to their maximum proportion in rural communities. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Bina, P. C., The Country Weekly, D. Appleton & Company, New York, 
1920. 

AntrINn, 8. B. and I. A., The Country Library, The Pioneer Press, Van Wert, 
Ohio, 1914. 

RankKIN, J. D., “Reading Matter in Nebraska Farm Homes,” Bulletin No. 
180, Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1922. 

Martin, O. B., The Demonstration Work, Stratford Company, Boston, 1921. 

Taytor, Cart C., “The Country Newspaper as a Town-Country Agency,” in 
Proceedings, Fourth National Country Life Conference, pp. 36-46, Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1921. 

Proceedings, Fifth National Country Life Conference on Country Community 
Education, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1922. 


CHAPTER XIII 
THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 
THE RURAL SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION 


The School’s Division of Labor in Rural Society —The 
rural school is two-fold in its institutional significance. It is 
an educational institution, and it is a social institution. The 
school, looked at as purely an institution of learning or looked 
at in its other potentialities, is, with the exception of the farm 
home, the most universal rural institution. If it were never 
to play any other rdle than that of educating rural children, 
it would be one of the great social institutions of the open 
country. 

Merely to say, however, that it is the function of the school 
to educate children is trite. What should it teach and what 
should be its supreme purpose in rural life? A. §. Jensen, 
Teaching Fellow in the School of Education, University of 
Washington, has made an interesting and enlightening study 
of what he calls “Rural Opinion of Educational Philosophy.” 
His method of analysis was to compile from rural education 
and other rural-life writings the different central aims which 
have been set forth by the writers in these fields and follow 
these aims or emphases with the results to which each would 
lead in rural life. He discovered five outstanding schools of 
thought. He then submitted these five viewpoints by ques- 
tionnaire to farm people, rural educators, county agents, farm 
organizations, county superintendents, and students. 

The following five purposes were set forth by Mr. Jensen 
as representing the emphases which different writers urged 
for rural education. 


I. (a) Emphasis: To train farm boys and girls so that 
they will stay on the farm. 
284 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 285 


(6) Result: The development of a distinct peasant 
class of rural people. 
II. (a) Emphasis: To furnish training for vocational (ag- 
ricultural) efficiency. 
(6b) Result: Efficient producers of farm products. 
III. (a) Emphasis: To prepare for a satisfying or richer 
rural life. 
(b) Result: Good farmers who are happy and con- 
tented to live in the country. 
IV. (a) Emphasis: To prepare for general efficiency and 
community service. 
(b) Result: Efficient citizens of the community. 
V. (a) Emphasis: Training for broad citizenship. 
(b) Result: Efficient citizenship of society as a whole. 


The opinions returned placed “Broad Citizenship’ first, 
“Community Service’ second, “Richer Rural Life” third, 
“Vocational Efficiency” fourth, and “Stay on the Farm’ fifth. 
“Broad Citizenship” was given first rank by almost 80 per 
cent of those who replied to the questionnaire. Mr. Jensen 
concludes his study with the following concise conclusions: 


The rural people, who are more interested in the problem of ele- 
mentary education in the rural schools than any one else, most em- 
phatically reject the idea of using the rural school as a means of 
keeping the children on the farm. 

The rural people reject also, with but little emphasis, the voca- 
tional efficiency, the richer rural life, and the community service 
theories as fundamental in the purposes of the rural school. 

The rural people express their emphatic approval of the broadest 
possible theory—citizenship of society as a whole—as the funda- 
mental only worth-while purpose of the elementary education in the 
rural school. 

If the opinion of the rural people, as expressed in this study, is 
general throughout the country, and if such opinion may be accepted 
as sound educational philosophy, the approach to the solution of 
the problem of the rural school must be from the general social 
viewpoint, and not from any particularistic point of view as it has 
so often been in the past. 


1Jenson, A. S., “Rural Opinion of Educational Philosophy,” The Journcal 
of Rural Education, November, 1925. 


286 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


There are three great tasks, all of which are vital to rural 
people and to American society, delegated to the rural school; 
to teach the fundamentals or rudiments of education, to fur- 
nish children the general elements of our common culture, and 
to prepare children for participation in institutions of higher 
learning. There should be within the reach of every rural 
child school facilities for performing each of these tasks. 

The task of teaching little children is not the task of teach- 
ing mere rudiments. It is the task of teaching fundamentals. 
Reading, writing, and arithmetic, so much and so rightly criti- 
cized from one viewpoint, are, from another viewpoint, the 
most fundamental things any elementary school can teach. 
They are the technologies by means of which a large per cent 
of our knowledge is gained. They are the vehicles for trans- 
mitting the ideas and experiences of other people and other 
generations to any given individual and to this generation. 
Written and spoken language, and numbers, are the most uni- 
versal tools of learning in the world. A person who can use 
none of them is handicapped indeed. So far as the use of lan- 
guage is concerned, all of us fall some place in the scale of 
learning between these dumb persons and such men as Shake- 
speare. People learned to talk and to read, write, and count, 
{to some extent, before the learning of these things became 
systematized in educational institutions. The tragedy is that 
not all persons obtain the use of these tools of learning in this 
day of universal schools. We have approximately 5,000,000 
persons, over ten years of age, in the United States who are 
illiterate. ‘These persons constitute 6 per cent of the total 
population in this age group. The percentage of the rural 
population is 7.1 per cent of those over ten years of age. In 
some rural sections it is as high as 25 per cent. In each of 
eight states, Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, 
New Mexico, Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona the per 
cent of rural illiterates over ten years of age exceeds 16 per 
cent of the total population. The first task of rural education 
is that of blotting out illiteracy. This is, then, the first task 
of the rural elementary school. 

The second task of the rural school, and the broadest task 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 287 


of all education, is to teach persons to make those adjust- 
ments to environments and to people which will give them the 
maximum of satisfaction in living. There is no such thing as 
abstract knowledge or abstract learning in the sense of educa- 
tion unrelated to life. All learning must relate itself to life’s 
experiences and life’s adjustments in some way. The most 
apt methods of teaching and learning are those which relate 
directly to every-day human experiences. The whole function 
of education is to make the relationships real and practicable. 
Further, the best methods of teaching demand the utilization 
of the immediate environment of the pupil. This environ- 
ment, in the case of the rural child, is the farm and farm life. 
This life alone is real to the child in the beginning of his 
schooling. A program of education which relates itself to 
the farm and farm life is, from the standpoint of either 
the teaching technique or human adjustments, the most 
practicable. 

The third task of the rural school is that of preparing people 
for rural life. If training in the rural elementary school fails 
to perform this third task, then millions of those who are to 
live on the farm and help to constitute rural civilization will 
be compelled to go without such training. For less than 15 
per cent of the children who enter the elementary schools ever 
attend any other institutions of learning. 

The fourth task of the rural elementary school is that of 
preparing persons to enter the high school. There is no 
reason why this task should in any way handicap, or even 
modify, the three primary functions of the common school. 
In fact every effort should be made to see that this does not 
happen. Even when the time arrives that one-half or more 
of those entering the elementary schools pass on into the high 
schools, these primary schools should hew to the line on their 
tasks of orienting persons to their local and world environ- 
ments and of giving them the working tools with which to 
adapt themselves to the day-by-day life which all persons in 
modern society must live. 

The Rural School—a Community Institution—The rural 
school is a part of the rural community, not only because it 


288 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


is located in the rural community, but also because there is 
delegated to it the task of systematically educating the rural 
boys and girls. It is a community institution, because it fur- 
nishes the most systematic association which the persons of 
the community ever have with each other outside their homes. 
It is a community institution because it is almost always 
the only public building and free public meeting place for 
the whole community. The institutionalizing process auto- 
matically crystallizes our most habitual activities and, sooner 
or later, narrows any institutional agency to a few categorical 
processes. Even though it continues to perform other than 
these catalogued functions, it is thought of primarily in terms 
of a few specific things. The rural school is thought of as 
an institution for educating boys and girls between the ages 
of six and fifteen years. Associations which have been con- 
tinuous for eight years are almost completely broken at the 
completion of the primary school. This is true, because the 
school life of these eight years is thought of, and too often 
practiced, only in terms of the course of study. Associations 
which furnish the dominant interests of the children for 
eight or nine months of the year are allowed to lapse almost 
altogether during the summer vacation. The school building 
and the school ground, usually alive with the faces of happy 
children and buoyant with association, become dust ridden 
and weed grown for one-third of the year. The rural school 
is one of the most important of rural institutions, but it 
has not yet visioned its whole function or developed its whole 
opportunity as a community institution. The movement for 
“the wider use of the school plant” has just recently come 
to include the rural school.? 

The Rural School as a Teaching Agency.—The problems of 
the rural school as a teaching agency center about who are 
taught, what and where they are taught, how long they are 
taught, and by whom they are taught. Someone has described 
the rural school as “a little school where little children for a 

* Preston, Mrs. J. C., “The Wider Use of the School Plant,” Bulletin No. 


34, State Department of Education of Washington, Olympia, Washington, 
1919. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 289 


little while are taught little things by a little teacher.” It 1s 
true that the schools are small, that the children are small, 
that they are starting to study elementary things, that the 
school year is often short, that the number of years of school- 
ing are few, and that the teacher is not an educational ex- 
pert. The rural school, however, has performed a wonderful 
service to rural people and to the nation. It has been located 
within the reach of practically every rural child in the United 
States. It was small in the beginning, because the rural in- 
habitants were few, the arteries of transportation and com- 
munication were few and poor, and the people were poor. It 
has taught the rudiments of education to millions of our 
people and raised the rate of literacy a thousand times above 
what it would have been without it. It has, throughout the 
period of our national existence, taken over half of the popu- 
lation of the nation for a number of months, over a number 
of years of their lives, and done for them what no other 
agency or institution could have done. The Fourth of July 
orator’s praise of the “little red school house” is a meritorious 
praise. The fault of the rural school is not that it has not 
taught much, many, and well, but that it is, in some respects, 
not alive to the new day in either education or agriculture. 
It is, therefore, not in derogation of the rural school of the 
past, but in appreciation of the great tasks and opportunities 
of the rural school of the future, that we analyze the rural 
school of the present and its salient weaknesses. 


THE PROGRAM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 


What the Rural School Teaches.—Just as the rural school 
is an institution, so it is largely a set of institutionalized 
courses of study. An institution is not capable of represent- 
ing the best thought of its day on any subject, for the thought 
of its day on any subject must become fairly universal in the 
minds of the general population before it can be translated 
into an institutional program. Institutions are almost cer- 
tainly representative of the best experiences of the past, 
but seldom, if ever, representative of the best experiences or 


290 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


experiments of the present. This ought to be less true of 
educational institutions than of any other types of institu- 
tions, for the very progress of education is looking forward. 
The more isolated an institution is from the stream of events 
which constitute progress, the more its program lags behind 
the best thinking and best methods of the present. The rural 
school is an institution which, until recently, has been in com- 
parative isolation. It has, therefore, lagged badly. 

The rural school still teaches those subjects which were 
thought to be necessary in the past: reading, writing, spell- 
ing, and arithmetic. Geography was very early added to its 
curriculum. This was soon followed by history and physiology. 
These seven subjects for half a century constituted the cur- 
riculum of the rural school. Children studied and teachers 
taught these subjects from three to eight months per year 
for a period of from six to eight years, oblivious to the great 
world of nature and numerous human adjustments which 
surrounded them. 

The methods of teaching were those of formal discipline. 
The technique of learning was that of rote memory. Prog- 
ress in education was measured by mile posts in specific text- 
books like Ray’s Third Part of Arithmetic or by passage 
from one text to another as from Third to Fourth Reader. 
The personal discipline of the school was in perfect keeping 
with the rigidness of the curriculum and lesson adjustments. 
The mind of the child was not developed. It was stuffed. 
The individuality and personality of the child was not de- 
veloped, it was crushed and catalogued. The interest of the 
child was not stimulated, it was driven. The eagerness of 
the farm boy to leave school, and his willingness to par- 
ticipate in the drudgery of farm work, in preference to par- 
ticipating in the program of the school, has probably been 
due more to the forbidding nature of this educational method 
and the stultifying of his natural interest by the school pro- 
gram than to any other one thing. 

Even when the opening of the channels of communica- 
tion had come and supervision from the state and county had 
pointed to the need of a changed curriculum, the changes were 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 291 


not directly functional in relation to rural life. Experimenta- 
tion and progress had taken place in city schools. New 
courses had been added there and new textbooks had been 
written by city educators. Because the rural child was never 
asked for an opinion, because the parents and citizens of the 
rural districts were not concerned, and because the rural 
teacher was third rate, the expansion of the rural sehool cur- 
riculum took place in the direction of city ideals. Reading, 
arithmetic, and manual training especially reflected city 
influence. 

Recently the needs of the rural school have been recog- 
nized. The curriculum of the rural school is seeking adapta- 
tion to rural life. Methods of rural teaching are being worked 
out which utilize the native rural environment and prepare 
the child for life on the farm and in the open country. 

The Recitations of the Rural School.—Teaching by recita- 
tion, until recently, and even yet in the one-room school, is 
little short of a farce. To do more than quiz pupils in text- 
books is impossible in a period averaging from six to ten 
minutes in length. The school is often a one-teacher affair. 
Many new courses have been added to its curriculum without 
eliminating or modifying old ones. Students of all ages are 
taught in oneroom. The period of schooling is short. The re- 
sult is, the average rural school has about thirty recitations 
daily. The author has seen schools in which the teacher was 
trying to conduct forty-five recitations daily. How much the 
rural schools have accomplished in five- and ten-minute recita- 
tions is little short of marvelous. How much they could have 
accomplished, had the teacher not been overburdened by the 
hearing of classes, and had she been able to teach by demon- 
stration during the class period and able to guide the desk 
work of the pupil, it is impossible to imagine. 

The whole fault with recitation in rural schools, however, 
is not due to a jammed curriculum. Part of it is due to the 
lack of teaching technique, to poor teachers, and especially 
to a lack of appreciation of the rural child’s interests. The 
rural school is seldom taught by a person who has dedicated | 


292 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


his or her life to the profession.1 The school equipment is 
so meager that no adequate technologies, such as charts, 
globes, sand piles, etc., are possessed by the teacher. The 
children range from six to fifteen years of age and all school 
work must be carried on in one room. The teacher often does 
not live in the community and her dominant interests do not 
lie in the community. There is no supervision of the teach- 
ing and often the one teacher is forced to attempt to be an 
expert in as many as eight different school grades. 

The Leisure-time Program of the Rural School—We might 
think, after all that has been said about our crowded programs, 
that the rural school has no time for leisure or recreational 
programs. This is altogether too true and will continue to be 
true so long as the time of the rural school is filled with count- 
less recitations, and study conducted by a method of formal 
discipline. It will continue to be true, to altogether too great 
a degree, wherever the school is a one-room, one-teacher 
school. 

The leisure-time program of the old-fashioned country 
school generally consisted of haphazard games and “gossipy” 
conversation carried on by small groups during a one-hour 
“noon recess” and two “fifteen-minute recesses,” one in the 
middle of the forenoon and one in the middle of the afternoon 
for the smaller children. Because the teacher was in the school 
house teaching, the children were completely unsupervised 
during their play periods. The children were usually not 
permitted to come to school much before time “for school to 
take up” in the morning and were forbidden by both parents 
and teacher, sometimes by the school board, to tarry at the 
school grounds after “school let out” in the afternoon. If the 
teacher participated in the play of the children at all, it was 
because he or she loved to play, wanted some fresh air and 
exercise, wanted to maintain discipline, or loved little children 
enough to enjoy their pleasures. It was the exceptional 
teacher, and not the average, who attempted to use a play 
program and play projects as part of the regular school pro- 


*Foucut, H. W., “Efficiency and Preparation of Rural School Teachers,” 
Bulletin No. 49, United States Bureau of Education, 1914. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 293 


gram. Furthermore, rural parents would have objected to any 
such play program. Education to them was a serious and 
routine task and children “got all the exercise they needed at 
home.” 

Another instrument of pleasure and improvement that is 
recognized today as a legitimate and valuable part of the 
school program, although altogether too much neglected, and 
which was totally absent from the old-fashioned rural school, 
is song. The old-fashioned church was a singing church. The 
old-fashioned country community was often a singing com- 
munity; but the old-fashioned rural school did not have songs, 
much less music, as a part of its program. Even the “last day” 
and “exhibition” programs were pretty much devoid of music. 

Story telling was never a part of the rural school program. 
Children started to school at five years of age, sometimes 
younger. They were neither entertained nor taught by story 
telling, but were immediately started with such formal dis- 
cipline as “a,b,c” and “numbers.” 

Once in a while an exceptional teacher would introduce one, 
or all, of these cultural elements. Sometimes Arbor days 
were set aside for planting trees in the school grounds, or the 
children were interested in some other item of ground im- 
provement. All these things were, however, due to the genius 
of some exceptional teacher, and never a part of an established 
and prescribed school program. These teachers were the fore- 
runners of the day of the new rural school, but that new day 
had not then arrived, nor has it yet, by any means, universally 
arrived in the life and program of the rural school. 

The program of the rural school has not, until very recently, 
had anything which could be correctly described as an ex- 
tension program. It accepted its task as being completed 
within the four walls of the school building and through the 
administering of from thirty to forty doses of categorical 
recitations every day for five days of each week for, never to 
exceed, thirty-two weeks of the year. With the remainder 
of the days and weeks, the school program had nothing to 
do. 


294 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE RURAL SCHOOL? * 


It Isn’t Meeting the Test of Modern Education.—No matter 
how much it is the tendency of institutions to lag behind the 
best thinking of their time, no institution is to be excused for 
following an old program after a new and better one has been 
thoroughly tested and proven. Any primary school that still 
has a dozen distinct types of courses in its curriculum; or 
teaches, even 50 per cent of them by the method of rote 
memory and formal discipline; or uses over 75 per cent of the 
school day in pure recitations; or fails to utilize the immediate 
environment and the child’s natural interests, as the point of 
departure for its training, is not meeting the established criteria 
of modern education. The one-room, one-teacher rural school 
is almost universally violating every one of these criteria. 

It Isn’t Meeting the Needs of Modern Farm Infe.—Agri- 
culture, nature study, and domestic sciences are finding their 
way into the curriculum of the rural school. A number of 
states make one, or all, of these, a part of their prescribed 
course of study. There are, however, thousands of rural schools 
still being taught without them, and millions of rural children 
going through, or leaving, these schools, without ever having 
related their learning at school to their life at home in any 
direct way. Civics, a recent addition to the rural school cur- 
riculum, in some states, is seldom “community civics’, much 
less “rural community civics.” 

The Rural School Is too Small.—There are still approxi- 
mately 200,000 one- and two-roomed schools in the United 
States. These schools are often located in small districts which 
attempt to support their own school programs. The buildings 
are relics of pioneer days, the grounds are small, and almost 
universally ill kept; the children are often few in number and 
the work, even after the most persistent effort, is poorly 
graded. Cubberley lists the chief objections to the district 
system of school organization. These objections constitute 


*There is practically no limit to the amount of space that could be given 
to the matters discussed in this section. Because they are more strictly sub- 
ject material for courses in education, they are discussed here only as a 
background for social interpretation, 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 295 


an intelligent criticism of the small school whenever it is 
found. They are: 


1. It is no longer so well adapted to meet present conditions and 
needs as are other systems of larger scope. 

2. The district authorities but seldom see the real needs of their 
schools or the possibilities of rural education. 

3. As a system of school administration it is expensive, short 
sighted, inefficient, inconsistent, and unprogressive. 

4. It leads to great, and unnecessary inequalities in schools, terms, 
educational advantages, and to unwise multiplication of schools. 
5. The taxing unit is too small, and the trustees too penurious. 

6. The trustees, because they hold the purse strings, frequently 
assume authority over many matters, which they are not competent 
to manage. 

7. Most of the progress in rural-school improvement has been 
made without the support and often against the opposition of the 
trustees and of the people they represent. 


The problem of rural-school education is too important and 
too great to be solved by a local district, one-room, one-teacher, 
unit or system of schools. 

It Is Poorly Equipped and Poorly Supported.—The day has 
passed when nothing more than oak benches, hickory switches, 
and blue-backed spellers is adequate school equipment. The 
day has passed when the stern disciplinarian and crack 
arithmetician is the criterion of an efficient teacher. The day 
has come, in a world of market and price régime, a world of 
newspapers and magazines, a world of scientific farming and 
community organization, when efficient education can be had 
only with trained teachers and adequate equipment. ‘Trained 
teachers and adequate equipment cost money. ‘The rural 
school will not be adequate until it is adequately supported. 
Rural schools are supported by a little more than one-half 
per capita expenditure per child of that of city schools. 
The investment in school property in the country per pupil 
is one-third to one-half what it is in the city. The tax rate 


*CUBBERLEY, E. P., Rural Life and Education, pp. 184-185, Houghton Mifflin 
Company, New York, 1914. 


296 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


TaBLeE 43.—CoMPARISON OF ScHOooL ADVANTAGES IN COUNTRY AND City IN 
THE UNITED STATES! 


School 
School ; Average 
School Term Property per Expenditures | annual Salary 


in Days Pupil Enrolled | P°* Pupil En- | “of Teachers 
rolled 


Se | eH eeeeSeSeSNSeSeSe 


Citys Agen cree 182 $146.69 $40 . 59 $854 
Country..... 143 60.81 23.91 479 


in the country is generally about one-half what it is in the city. 
The average annual salary of the rural teacher is about one- 
half of that paid the city teacher. The rural school buildings 
are small, poorly lighted, poorly heated, poorly ventilated. 
They are short on blackboards, charts, maps, globes, pictures, 
and library equipment. Their grounds are ill kept and quite 
devoid of play equipment. These shortcomings will never be 
corrected until the money is provided with which to supply 
the needed support and to purchase adequate equipment. So 
long as we maintain the small-district system of rural schools, 
we shall have not only inequalities between city and country 
educational opportunities, but we shall have gross inequalities 
between the educational opportunities of different country 
children. Professor Eliff, for years inspector of schools in. 
Missouri, was wont to say, “The carefully guarded ‘right’ of 
the local district, is the right to have the poorest school pos- 
sible.” 

It Is Poorly Attended.—Rural-school attendance universally 
falls below that of city-school attendance. This in no small 
way accounts for the excessive illiteracy of our rural popula- 
tion. It is true because (1) the school, and its program, is not 
inviting or challenging to the rural child; (2) because farmers 
keep their children at home to work; (3) because compulsory 
laws are often modified to permit a greater per cent of absences 
in rural schools; (4) because weather and roads are bad and 
there is no system of transportation. 


* Bulletin No. 90, 1919, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, 
Washington, D. C., pp. 29, 31, 34. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 297 


TaBLeE 44.—ScHoot ATTENDANCE IN City AND Country! 


Per Cent of 
Enrolled Pupils sane ei: 
in Average Higher Rate 


Daily Attend- of Attendance 
ance 


Number of | Average Daily 
Pupils Enrolled} Attendance 


ee  , 


OT gabe li A Oe 8,586,601 6,760,314 78.4 35 
Country.....| 12,280,530 8,674,451 70.6 13 


The Time Is too Short and the Years of Schooling too Few.— 
The average length of the rural-school year was 143 days in 
1918. The average length of the city-school year was 182 
days that year.2. In a number of states the rural schools pro- 
vide only seven grades of instruction. There are hundreds 
of rural schools that run only six months or less per year. A 
survey of the 300 freshmen in North Carolina State College of 
Agriculture and Engineering showed, in 1921, an average 
school attendance of seventy-seven months previous to enter- 
ing college. Over one-third of the country boys had no more 
than sixty-four months of schooling. That is, one-third had 
only eight years of eight-months’ schooling, or about seven 
years of nine-months’ schooling. 

Until recently there have been no rural high schools, con- 
sequently the rural child has either gone without a high- 
school training or has gone to the city to get it. 

It Is Poorly Taught.—The rural school is universally more 
poorly taught than the city school. This is because: 

1. The teacher has from ten to fifteen subjects to teach and 
from thirty to forty recitations per day to conduct. 

2. The rural teachers are the unexperienced teachers. 

3. They are poorly paid, with the result that the better 
teachers are monopolized by the city. 

4, There is not adequate teaching equipment in rural schools. 

5. Good teaching is impossible when the subject matter is 

7 Biennial Survey of Education in the United States, 1920-1922, Department 


of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. 
* Ibid. 


298 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


not of interest to the student. Much of the subject matter of 
the rural school curriculum is not of interest to the rural child. 


TaBLE 45.—TEACHERS IN ONE-AND Two-room Rurat Scuoots! 








INGER Be cw ik bie ee ee oe eee eee oe 300 , 000 

Not yet completed high school.............. 150,000 50 sper cent 
Finished only grade school.................. 30,000 10 sper cent 
No professional training a. cc bee 100,000 3314 per cent 
Normal sehool graduates. leach seleaatsien @ 6,000 2 per cent 
Speembruraltramimg | Sewn gee ce ee CO 300 0.1 per cent 
Number who leave the field annually........ 90 , 000 30 ~~ per cent 
Remain not more than one year in a place... . 200,000 66.6 per cent 





It Is Poorly Supervised and Administered.—Educational ad- 
ministration and supervision have become professions. A 
school or a school program has no more chance of being ef- 
ficiently conducted without expert, overhead supervision than 
has a factory, a city, oran army. A state the size of Iowa will 
average about 300,000 children enrolled in rural schools. Under 
a local district system, it will have 30,000 rural-school units. 
This means the teaching of from 350,000 to 400,000 subjects 
daily and the hearing of about 1,000,000 recitations daily. 
Needless to say, such a stupendous undertaking needs the best 
of administration and supervision. 

The weaknesses of rural-school administration and super- 
vision are: 

1. The local district or township school board has neither 
the time nor the training to administer and supervise rural 
education. 

2. The county superintendent is too often elected by popular 
vote and not chosen because he is a trained educator. 

3. A state course of study, state inspection, and state super- 
vision is too often absent. 

4, There are no standard criteria for rural school courses 
of study, teacher training, or school conduct. 

5. There is little supervision of health, sanitation, and other 
extra-curricular factors. 

It is neither necessary nor desirable to discuss in detail these 
weaknesses and the different experiments and systems now 

* Tovd. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 299 


being tried in the different states. The slightest observation 
of rural schools and a comparison of rural and city schools 
will serve to show how far the rural school falls short of city- 
school efficiency in administration and supervision. 


ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL FACTORS THAT MAKE FOR POOR RURAL 
SCHOOLS 


Tenancy.—Because the local unit of school support and ad- 
ministration is so often practiced, rural-school opportunity dif- 
fers in different districts. It is unequal where there are two 
or more widely separate tenure classes, no matter what the unit 
of administration and support. Tenants are not as able to give 
their children educational advantages as owners are. A tenant 
community gets good school support from neither operators 
nor absentee owners. The tenants themselves are usually of 
lower educational status and so have lower educational ideals. 
Hired men and croppers jeopardize school efficiency even more 
than do tenants. We can check the rural school by any one of 
the weaknesses just reviewed, and if the weakness depends on 
the children, the community, the building, or the support, it 
will be found to be magnified in tenant communities. In the 
Southeast Missouri community, referred to in a number of 
other chapters, the tenants had twice as high a rate of 1l- 
literacy and the croppers and hired men over four times as 
high a rate of illiteracy as the owner operators. The tenants, 
croppers, and hired men constituted over nine-tenths of the 
total population of this community. 

In this community * it was found that 59.3 per cent of the 
croppers, 38.9 per cent of the hired men, and 27.6 per cent of 
the tenants had dropped out of school by the time of, or before, 
the completion of the fourth grade. Only 14.5 per cent of the 
owner operators had dropped out at this stage of schooling. 
Not a cropper or hired man in the whole area held a school 
office; 43 per cent of the hired men, 43 per cent of the croppers, 

*'Taytor, Cart C., Yoper, F. R. and Zimmerman, C. C.: A Social Study 


of Farm Tenancy tn Southeast Missouri, In Press, United States Department. 
of Agriculture. 


300 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


and 26 per cent of the tenants were either opposed to specific 
school improvement or demonstrated no interest when ques- 
tioned by the surveyors. Only 12 per cent of the owner 
operators fell in the negative class. Not an owner in the com- 
munity kept his children out of school to work for hire, while 
25 per cent of the tenants, 66 per cent of the croppers, and 
78.6 per cent of the hired men followed this practice. All the 
school buildings were in a condition of unrepair." 

The families of tenants, croppers, and hired men not only 
fail to practice consistent school habits and give adequate 
school support, but it is natural that they should not have a 
very deep interest in the school as a community institution, 
since they are transients in the community. The landlord 
is often worse than a transient. He is a non-resident. In the 
report of “A Study of Rural Schools in Travis County, Texas,” 
E. E. Davis says: 


Diligent inquiry was made, and in this area of 200 square miles 
and more than 13,000 population, only one absentee landlord was 
reported as actively encouraging his tenants to vote for a school 
tax." 

You want to know what makes our school one of the sorriest 
in Travis County? I can tell you in about fifteen words. This 
community is owned and controlled by about three men who do not 
live here.® 


The table on the following page is from another study in 
Texas: 

Tenant children are often kept out of school because of lack 
of books, lack of clothes, work at home, or because of moving 
from place to place. 

Poor Farming and Low Farm Income.—Poor farming auto- 
matically results in lack of property, particularly after the 
native fertility has been taken from the soil. One-crop sec- 
tions, sections with few livestock, sections where land values 
are low, and sections where farm incomes are low can easily be 

* Ibid. 

* Davis, E. E., “A Study of Rural Schools in Travis County, Texas,” 


Bulletin No. 67, p. 7, University of Texas, 1916. 
* Ibid. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 301 


TABLE 46.—TuHE INFLUENCE oF TENANCY UPON EDUCATION! 


Per Cent 
Per Cent | Per Cent | of Aver- 
ne pao School Feet of Dis- | of Enrol- | age Daily 
Counties Operated Property of School | . "cts ment to | Attend- 
per . Levying | Scholas- | ance to 
Pe Oe Volta a bateteiana | apace bal |i Shoal 
Tenants : Days ae Seige ean nae oe 
Taxes eration Enum- 
eration 
Average for 
about eleven 
low-tenancy 
counties..... 30 32.55 135 75 89 52 
Average for 
about fif- 
teen high- 
tenancy coun- 
Cisse, eae 63 13.76 117 64 81 47 


shown to be sections below the average in rural-school educa- 
tional advantages. The automatic influence of these economic 
factors is so very evident as not to need proof. School and 
school programs cost money and these sections stand low in 
purchasing power. South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and 
other states that have consistently held low rank when meas- 
ured by these economic criteria have consistently stood low in 
rural educational advantages. This influence is greatly magni- 
fied when the poverty of a single local district is allowed com- 
pletely to control the educational apportionment of that 
district. 

Isolation.—Isolation is the sole remaining excuse for the 
small-district, one-room, one-teacher school. This is the 
poorest kind of rural school known. States which are sparsely 
settled, such as Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, and 
Montana, rank low, particularly in average daily attendance. 
Gillette says that the seven states which have the poorest roads 
in the United States have the poorest rural school attendance 


*Wuirtr, E. V., “Studies in Farm Tenantry in Texas,” Bulletin No. 21, 
Page 41, University of Texas. 


302 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


record and the five states that have the best roads have the 
best rural school attendance. 

Isolation is a handicap to rural schools because large schools 
are impossible, roads are generally bad, teachers hesitate to 
accept positions far removed from city conveniences and as- 
sociations, and supervision is difficult. In some isolated 
mountain and sparsely settled dry-farming sections the school 
runs only in the summer months. 

Race Cleavages.—During the last decade the improvement 
of Negro education has been very rapid. This has been due 
to a number of causes. Natural humanitarian sentiments 
probably rank as first cause. A number of endowment in- 
stitutions such as the Slater, Jeanes, and Rosenwall funds have 
led in the promotion of the education of the Negroes. All of 
the Southern states are now doing many times more for the 
development and promotion of Negro education than they 
were two decades ago. The people of the Southern states 
now see clearly that it is impossible to raise the general level 
of their economic life unless they raise the standard of living 
of the Negroes. They are going at this task chiefly by means 
of education. 

The differences between the educational status and educa- 
tional opportunities of the white and the colored races are 
still very great. The following table gives a number of com- 
parative data for the Southern states. The Northern states 


TABLE 47.—SHOWING COMPARATIVE DA 





State Alabama Florida Georgia 
Races (white and colored) White| Colored} White] Colored} White] Colored 
Per cent of total scholastic population.......... 61.79| 38.21 | 68.19] 31.81 | 58.22) 41.78 
Per cent of total school enrolment............. 63°530).36.7051) 72.86) 27. 14 et eee ee 
Length of school term (in days)............... 143 ES 148 108: |. $428 oh eee 
Per cent of total amount paid teachers......... 79.73| 12.11 | 91.58] ~8.42 9) 90,65) 19235 
Per centror totalischoolsproperty i... asses. cee - 90.73) 9.27 | 98.97} 6.03 | 89.10) 10.90 
Per cent of total expended for equipment....... O2R65|ieoo 97.94 206 94.79| 5.21 
Per cent of total amount of current expenditures | 89.41] 10.59 aded Mal ee rake Si 
Number of accredited high schools ............]...... 209 Lehn tees 264 1l 
Per cent of total amount expended for higher 
GAUCALLOT RAT) Ort ety dere each tobeicreivisy SI an eace Ree tooled fat GASH ct atetiet ade Hand re hat eae' [lac octal cL Geta Eee 96423) s3270 








* All these data are for either 1922, 1923, or 1924. The same year was al 
given state. The state educational reports are different in the type of infor 
filled. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SCHOOLS 303 


do not have separate schools for the two races and, therefore, 
no data are available for them. 

The differences in educational facilities, and particularly in 
school practices between the two races, are even greater than 
appear from the facts presented in the table. The attend- 
ance records of the Negro children are much poorer than those 
of the whites. This is true for two chief reasons, Negro chil- 
dren are much oftener kept out of school to help with farm 
and other labor and attendance officers do not enforce the 
law so rigidly in the case of the Negro children. The salaries 
and the professional training of the Negro teachers are always 
lower than those of white teachers. The Negro schools are 
much less often consolidated. 

Considerably over one-half of the accredited Negro high 
schools are not supported by tax funds. Georgia, for instance, 
with eleven accredited Negro high schools, supports only one 
such school out of tax moneys. North Carolina, which leads 
all the Southern states in educational opportunities for the 
colored portion of her population, has twenty state-supported 
accredited high schools and twenty-three such schools sup- 
ported by endowment funds. 

The educational opportunities for the Negroes diminish as 
they advance from the elementary school toward institutions 
of higher learning. Practically all of the institutions of higher 


TA OF WHITE AND NEGRO EpuCATION ! 


Louisiana North Carolina} Oklahoma South Carolina] Tennessee Texas 


8S ee 








56.31 | 43.69 | 68.36) 31.64 | 92.63} 7.27 | 51.11] 48.89 | 82.17] 17.73 | 82.71) 17.29 
66.52 | 33.48 | 68.52] 31.48 | 92.48] 7.52 | 51.19] 48.81 | 81.74] 18.26 | 82.35) 17.65 
171 113 UE Oy AU WIR ae eA a Sh 167 114 





89.09 | 10.91 | 88.96} 11.04 | 95.22) 4.78 | 86.88] 13.12 

94.75 Di SOL TROT, Lass fs ace te tightly eels 89.11) 10.89 | 93.44; 6.56 | 94.97} 5.03 
eth © ee .@ 1 8) € O 6 0. 0. 6 93 63 6:37 95 39 4.61 88.69 TUASH 

Geos Ol Pe oroe 5 ; : : 89.97} 11.03 

294 4 446 ASMA RIT: bvars tues eta 276 16 258 10 579 i! 


90.44) 9.56 | 93.12} 6.88 | 98.51} 1.49 


ways used in compiling the facts for both white and Negro statistics in a 
mation they present and consequently all categories of the table are not 


304 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


learning for Negroes are either agricultural schools or teacher- 
training schools. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Foucnt, H. W., The American Rural School, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1913. 

Cuspertey, KE. P., Rural Life and Education, Houghton, Mifflin Company, 
New York, 1914. 

Biennial Survey of Education in the United States, 1920-1922, Department 
of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. 

Betts, G. H. and Hau, O. E., Better Rural Schools, The Bobbs-Merrill 
Company, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1914. 


: fo 


CHAPTER XIV 
AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM 
BETTER AND MORE FUNCTIONAL SCHOOLS 


Rural Schools Must Relate Themselves to Other Factors and 
Conditions of Rural Life—Because schools are universal and 
because great numbers of children assemble in them, it is easy 
to fall into the fallacy of believing that they can carry out 
functions which are quite impossible for them to perform. 
It is highly questionable whether the elementary schools can 
do many things which some school men claim to be their 
central tasks. Their control over the child is not so complete 
nor so subtle as that of the home. Youths are under the 
direct control of the schools for less than half their waking 
hours and for less than half of the days of their lives between 
the times of birth and fourteen years of age. The schools are 
neither our most dominant nor most universal educational 
forces. A child’s personality is not so much made in school 
as it is in the home. His early habits and attitudes are all 
learned in the home. Even after he has entered the school he 
returns to his home each day. If we take into account morn- 
Ings, evenings, Saturdays, Sundays, and vacation periods we 
see at once that the home remains, all during the child’s early 
education, the most dominant moulding agency of his life. 

The school is, nevertheless, one of our great social institu- 
tions. Social institutions operate upon the basis of a division 
of labor between vital social functions. One major social in- 
stitution is never a substitute for another major social institu- 
tion. Each social institution arises out of a need to be met and 
operates in the midst of forces, interests, and agencies which 
divide the whole field with it. The school will never function 
accurately in the total program of rural education until it 
relates itself, in the most intelligent fashion, to the total rural 

305 


306 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


community. Persons who live in rural communities are 
chiefly dominated by thoughts, purposes, and plans of farm- 
ing. All of them live in individual, self-contained families. 
An appreciation of these facts is of major importance in un- 
derstanding what the rural school ought to be and can be. In 
the general social atmosphere of the farm home and rural 
community the school will never supersede these primary in- 
terests of those who live on farms. What it must and should 
do is to utilize and supplement these interests. That is, it 
must capitalize these interests in its technique of teaching and 
supplement the lives of its pupils by introducing other in- 
terests into this supersaturated rural atmosphere. 

Rural Schools Must Supply to the Rural Child’s Mind What 
the Rural Environment Lacks.'—Schools are a necessity in a 
civilization or society so complex that many forces which in- 
fluence a person in his daily life cannot be personally known 
to his individual physical experience. Before trade and com- 
merce arose, people knew their total environment and knew 
fairly intimately all persons with whom they had anything to 
do. Today, even in our own homes, we touch the ends of the 
earth and are influenced by forces and peoples whom we can- 
not possibly know personally. Unless we can have some sure 
way of keeping ever cognizant of the affairs of the world com- 
munity we will be seriously handicapped. The school is an 
institution whose function it is to lay at the feet of each 
new generation the accumulated experience of all past genera- 
tions and to place each generation in touch with the world of 
its own day. The home, the neighborhood, and the occupations 
could perform the complete task of education in a simple, 
homogeneous society and can and will continue to start each 
new generation in life. But the school must take the next 
necessary long step by supplying the knowledge and the tools 
for the adjustments to that larger life and set of activities 
which he beyond the experience of farm family life. 

The School Curriculum Should Educate for Life and Liv- 
mg.—The child comes to school knowing little, if anything, ex- 


*Brrm, D. G., Rural Education, 197ff, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1923. 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM — 307 


cept life as it is lived day by day. The institutionalization of 
education, that is, the centralizing of education in schools and 
the crystallizing of it into the subjects in the curriculum, has 
had a tendency to detach much of our teaching from the im- 
mediate facts of living. If the schools fail to connect up with 
life as it is lived and must be lived day by day, they will fail to 
be our chief educational agencies, though a goodly portion of 
the student’s life is spent within them. Persons learn by doing 
and are stimulated to learn in order that they may more suc- 
cessfully carry on life’s normal activities. They will, there- 
fore, be interested in and directed by those things which they 
can most readily recognize as related to the world of affairs. 
If the school fails to deal with the world of affairs, then those 
activities and institutions which do will dominate and direct 
the energies and interests of the student and will automatically 
be the chief educational forces of society. 

There is nothing to be gained by making education abstract. 
General or cultural education separated from life’s activities 
is not only not education at all but is impossible. The student 
may feel impelled to memorize the categories of abstract sub- 
jects but he will never inculcate them into his habits and 
personality. They will not, therefore, influence his conduct or 
attitude and can never reflect themselves in worth-while ac- 
tivity. Furthermore, it is not necessary to teach in abstrac- 
tions in order to place the student in contact with the larger 
world of which he is a part and to make him cognizant of the 
forces and influences which play a part in his life. What we 
must do is to recognize that all education is general and 
cultural, if its relationships to life’s activities are made clear. 
The idea that science, or even the so-called humanities or clas- 
sics, must be reduced to abstractions because they are studies 
of past life is fallacious, robs them of their richness, and takes 
from them the part they should perform in educating the stu- 
dent for life in a world environment. The study of cultures, 
of civilization—their institutions, their customs, their literature 
and their life—is the only education that can be cultural in a 
dynamic sense. 

At times the aversion for abstract education leads to an 


308 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


overemphasis of training in the detailed manipulation of trades 
and occupations. To do this is also to rob education of its 
broader function. It is no small part of a student’s education 
to learn the necessity of performing a definite division of 
society’s labor, but it is tragic if, in learning the techniques and 
technologies of a trade and occupation, he is robbed of that 
training which has to do with human relationships and fails 
to get an appreciation and understanding of the life and activ- 
ity of the world of the past and the present. It is possible 
to train a person so well, or at least so narrowly, for a trade 
or profession, that he will be handicapped in actual civic life. 

The course of study in the common schools, in some of its 
elements, is particularly well adapted to education for citizen- 
ship in a modern world. The “three R’s’, which are some- 
times unduly criticized, are the absolutely fundamental neces- 
sities for participation in a society which is larger than a local 
neighborhood. They are the vehicles of communication be- 
tween persons who are not in face-to-face contact. To be 
cble to read, write, and use numbers is essential to communicat- 
ing with persons outside our immediate physical environment. 
If the course of study in the common schools had to be re- 
duced to three subjects, reading, writing, and arithmetic should 
be those three subjects. 

Science, geography, and history are probably the next most 
important subjects in training a student for knowledge of and 
participation in the world of affairs. Geography, if properly 
taught, introduces the child to the physical world in which he 
lives. Huistory teaches him about the world’s people. These 
two subjects open the eyes of the child to the world which lies 
beyond his own community and introduce him to the fact 
that the life of his community is thoroughly interwoven into 
the life of society at large. 

Just as history and geography introduce a person to his 
larger physical and cultural environment, so science frees him 
from local, and purely incidental, factors of life and introduces 
him to the laws of the physical and the organic world. Science, 
in the form of nature study, should be a part of the course of 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM _ 309 


study from the first year of school and should be enlarged 
in its scope and interpretation all through the school training. 

Next to geography, history, and science, should be the social 
sciences: economics, sociology, political science, and social 
ethics. They need not and must not be taught abstractly, as 
they so often are in our higher institutions of learning. They 
need not be known by these titles, which are college-course 
names. They can be taught as early in the course of study 
as are geography and history. The child has been in contact 
with, and participated in, the life activities of the family, the 
neighborhood, and the school for a number of years; he has 
seen trading in economic goods, and he himself has done some 
trading; he has seen the operation of government on all sides 
and has participated in social life from hundreds of angles. He 
knows more about the civic or social facts and factors of life 
when he comes to school than he does about any other set of 
facts and processes which appear as part of his school study. 
A course in citizenship, including a description and analysis 
of all civic relationships, local and world wide, should be a 
part of every school curriculum. 

Education Must Be Recognized as the Progressive Adjust- 
ment to the Changing Circumstances of Life and as the Chief 
Means of Social Progress.—A person is never completely edu- 
cated. Every step in the learning process simply furnishes 
him more tools and techniques with which to take the next 
step, and every next step will demand other adjustments and 
thus involve further learning. The chief function of a school 
education is to teach persons to know how progressively to 
discover the world in all of its aspects, himself a part of it, and 
to live abundantly in it by making adaptions to it and use of it. 
Education is education in the real sense to the degree that it 
creates the desire and capacity for further mental growth. 

The school as an institution, more than the home, is capable 
of progressive adaptation to the changing life of the world. 
The family life and practices continue astonishingly uniform 
from generation to generation, because of the rule of custom. 
Each generation imbibes its thoughts and picks up its customs 
from observations of the previous generation. In the school 


310 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


there is a systematic and conscious revision of subject matter 
based upon the new discoveries of the world. Education is, 
therefore, our chief agency of progress. The modifications in 
life come chiefly through learning new and better ways of 
doing things. The progress of the past has not come through 
the development of a better racial stock, though we have 
learned much about the protection and preservation of life. 
It has come through learning more about our physical and 
social world and how to use this world for human happiness 
and welfare. 

We have sufficient knowledge of the psychology of learning, 
sufficient knowledge of the origin of impulse and interest, and 
sufficient evidence that the rural school will for a long time to 
come have a monopoly on the formal education of the majority 
of rural persons, to know that, unless it teaches them to make 
adjustments to farm life and efficiently to utilize farm facts, 
it is not really educating to any great extent at all. 

Agriculture is the one dominant activity in rural life. Rural 
folk find every element in their standard of living dependent 
upon, or conditioned by, the fundamental facts of farming. 
There is not a subject in the rural school curriculum that needs 
to have its more universal values sacrificed because it is ap- 
proached from the child’s knowledge of, and interest in, agri- 
culture. If the curricula in schools for rural children do not 
furnish studies which attach themselves directly to life and 
work on the farm, the children will seek to escape education 
by leaving the school or to escape the farm by going to the 
towns and cities. 

The rural-school curriculum that fails to enlarge the 
environment of rural boys and girls, by giving them a 
knowledge of the larger world in which they live today, is 
failing to perform its duty to the nation and to the world. 
Schools, wherever they be, should teach persons to make pro- 
gressive adjustment to the changing circumstances of an ever- 
enlarging world life. The rural school can do this for rural 
boys and girls with a curriculum that is adjusted to the knowl- 
edge of the occupation of agriculture at one end and the 
knowledge of the world at the other end. 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM 311 


The Schools Must Add Some New Subjects——Cubberley re- 
lates the following incident in discussing the need for a recon- 
structed rural-school curriculum: 


One of our distinguished American scientists, now the chancellor 
of one of our large universities, once told the writer that in one of 
the first institute talks he ever gave he pointed out to the teachers 
present the great overemphasis of grammar in our public school 
work, and the desirability of reducing the time then given to this 
subject. At the close of the address a school principal came for- 
ward and wrung his hand, saying that he agreed with him thor- 
oughly, and had for years been advocating such a reduction, in order 
that more time might be secured for work in arithmetic. The 
writer once had a similar experience, except that the subjects in- 
volved were exactly reversed. 


For altogether too long a time patrons and teachers and 
educators have assumed that the efficiency of successful schools 
depends upon the traditional subjects of the old-fashioned 
curriculum. Such is not the case. The destiny of the rural 
school hangs upon the introduction of subjects which relate 
more directly to adjustments to farm life and work. Modern 
conditions of life, present demands made upon agriculture, and 
urgent needs of rural communities demand a school that 
teaches more than the “three R’s” and their few supplements. 

The modern school curriculum should include courses in 
nature study, agriculture, domestic science, manual arts, 
health, civics, music, physical training, and organized play. 
It is peculiar indeed that nature study, the content of which 
consists almost wholly of the study of plant, animal, and bird 
life, was first introduced in city schools and had been long 
taught there before it was introduced in the rural schools. 
Domestic science has been taught to city girls, who can never 
possibly have the enormous responsibilities and detailed duties 
of household management, which farm girls have. City boys, 
some of whom will never have any great need for skill in man- 
ual arts, have been given opportunities for manual training, 


*Cuspertey, E. P., Rural Life and Education, p. 256, Houghton, Mifflin 
Company, New York, 1914, 


312 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


while country boys, who every day of their adult lives will 
have need of such training, have been compelled to spend 
their school hours studying arithmetic and formal grammar. 
The country boy and girl, living out of contact with public 
and commercial music and recreation of the city, have been 
the last to be taught music and recreation. The rural school 
needs to wake up to the facts that there are new ideas in 
education, that the city school has stolen its birthright in some 
innovations, and that even the city school cannot lead the 
way to a thoroughly adequate rural curriculum. 

Discussion about the placing of new courses in the cur- 
riculum of the country school has centered about agri- 
culture. To “vocationalize,” “vitalize,’ or “make practical” 
the country school has seemed always to mean the introduction 
into its curriculum a study of this one dominant, practical 
part of farm existence. The three great obstacles to the in- 
troduction of agriculture into the curriculum have been: 

1. Farmers have had no faith in the “book learning” and 
grade teaching of agriculture. They have not believed agri- 
culture could be learned from books. They have not believed 
a girl teacher could teach it, even if it could be learned from 
books, and they have wanted their children to study those 
things which they would not naturally learn at home. 

2. It was argued that a child of the age of those in the grade 
school could not study a subject which presupposes so much 
technical, scientific knowledge as does agriculture. 

3. It was argued that the curriculum was already jammed 
and there was no time for new subjects. 

All these arguments have been overcome to a degree. The 
triumph will ultimately be complete. Farmers have been 
learning from the agricultural journals and bulletins. They 
have seen their boys and girls develop an interest in farm 
facts and processes which they have never got from reading, 
writing, and arithmetic. They have even seen them learn- 
ing things about agriculture which they themselves never had, 
and never would have, learned from traditional farming itself. 
They are still justified of course, in their objection to mere 
“book agriculture” and the city teacher. To teach agri- 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM - 318 


culture efficiently, they must see that they have school gardens, 
demonstration plots at school and at home, that they have a 
country-bred man teacher who is trained in agriculture, and 
that a longer period of schooling than seven or eight years be 
furnished to rural children. 

If the study of agriculture had no value in itself to the rural 
child, and it ought not to be pushed too far on the base of the 
vocational value alone, its introduction into the rural-school 
curriculum would have enormous value in that it serves to 
help break up the old, stultified, traditional curriculum and 
to vitalize the whole school program. It has introduced proj- 
ect and demonstration teaching, has attached learning to the 
vital interests of the child, and proved that the most apt way 
to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and spelling is by subject 
matters which challenge the interest of the child in learning 
these subjects. 

Domestic science has been opposed by exactly the same 
arguments as those imposed against agriculture. Farm people, 
and even others, have ridiculed the idea that the school could 
teach farm girls anything about domestic science and house- 
hold management which they would not learn from their 
mothers. The study of domestic science has been so fruitful 
in teaching food values, balanced diets, household manage- 
ment, home conveniences, home beautification, sewing, cook- 
ing, and serving, that it has quickly justified its place in the 
rural-school program. In many eases it has given the farm 
woman her first insight into the possibilities of lightening the 
burdens of her tasks, to the beautification and decoration of 
the farm home, and to the scientific care of her children. The 
fact that the girls pursue the courses in nature study, garden- 
ing, plant diseases, etc., during the earlier grades, makes it 
possible for them to accomplish a great deal in domestic science 
during the seventh and eighth grades of school. The school 
garden and school lunch have furnished the projects for demon- 
stration teaching and have thus added much to school life. 
The hot lunch also has distinct health values, because it elim- 
inates the cold and poorly balanced diet of the home-prepared 
lunch. 


314 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


The most apt and practical place for manual training in any 
school is in rural schools. Manual training must necessarily 
consist largely of hand and small-tool work. The professional 
man of the city has practically no use for the techniques of 
manual arts. The factory worker is a machine worker, and 
school equipment cannot possibly furnish equipment for 
machine training. The artisan class alone can make practical 
after use of the techniques learned in the manual-art depart- 
ments of the city schools. The farm boy, on the other hand, 
will have to be his own mechanic, carpenter, mason, and cob- 
bler continually. Manual training has values in its practical 
application to farm tasks, in its utility in developing farm and 
home conveniences, in the relief it offers from other school 
studies, and in the opportunity it gives for inductive learning 
and teaching. It should be a part of every rural school cur- 
riculum. 

The introduction of the social sciences into the primary 
schools is still a mooted question in the minds of a great many 
persons. It would seem that the fact that at least 85 per 
cent of the rural boys and girls never enter high schools should 
be sufficient argument for the introduction of this subject into 
the primary school. The child does not escape from the in- 
dustrial, social, and political life of his time merely because 
he fails to enter a high school. The necessity of his having 
economic, social, and political knowledge in order to enjoy, 
participate in, and prosper in the life of society is just as es- 
sential for one who never enters a high school or college as it 
is for one who does. The following quotation, from Professor 
Betts, is in reply to the argument that these subjects are too 
difficult for the elementary grades. He says: 


If we grant the economic ability to support good schools, then 
the curriculum offered by any type of school, the scope of the sub- 
ject matter given the pupil to master, is the measure of the educa- 
tional ideals of those maintaining the schools. 


If we grant that it is desirable for the rural dweller to have 


*Berts, G. H., New Ideals in Rural Schools, p. 57, Houghton, Mifflin Com- 
pany, New York, 1913. 





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AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM © 315 


civic training then we must grant the necessity of placing 
civics in the common-school curriculum. 

The teaching of civics in some rural grade schools has been 
practiced for three decades. At the time of its introduction 
it fell heir to all the faults of categorical, deductive presenta- 
tion. It was merely a study of geographical political units 
of organization and the learning to recite the names of public 
offices. Even yet textbooks of civics are all too much primers 
in the study of political science. The political organization of 
society is one of the last phases of social organization in which 
the child comes to participate and probably the last in which 
he becomes interested. He should have called to his attention, 
first those social facts which most concern him, his home, 
community, playground, school, and church organizations. 
He should be told the story of mankind and his relationships 
to nature and other men. He should very early learn the 
economic arrangement of his farm and home and their rela- 
tion to other occupations and significance in the world. These 
things are as much a part of his every-day environment as 
plants and animals are, and much more comprehensible to him 
than an abstract multiplication table is. Finally he should 
be taught the political organization of society, the county, 
state, and nation. There is no course in the whole gamut of 
learning which lends itself so aptly to the developing mind, 
expanding environment, and world of knowledge as does the 
study of civics, if it is properly taught and contains the proper 
subject matter. 

Musie, art, drawing, literature, and organized play should 
all find a place in the rural-school curriculum. They not only 
enrich the school life but develop an appreciation of the 
beautiful and buoyant in home and community life. Rural 
districts need these cultural elements to relieve the monotony 
of their occupational routine and to break down the isolation 
of their existence. All these things lead to social gatherings, 
develop social and cultural contacts, and help persons to 
appreciate and enjoy the larger world in which they live. 
They should all find place in the grade-school curriculum and 
can find place there, but not unless the schools are reorganized 


316 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


physically and unless the old subjects of the curriculum are 
modified in time and presentation. 

Old Subjects Must Be Redirected—The adding of six or 
seven new subjects to the grade-school curriculum, while at 
the same time retaining all the subjects which have been there, 
is what has given us our overcrowded curriculum. If the 
school were reorganized so as to give more time for recitations, 
and organized so as to relieve the necessity of one person 
teaching all subjects, even then the grade school could not 
accommodate fifteen subjects, many of which run through 
several grades. The introduction of new courses means the 
elimination, or at least stringent modification, of some old 
courses. Eight solid years of eight months of twenty days 
each can no longer be given to arithmetic, formal grammar, 
reading, spelling, and writing. Nor is there time for long 
hours of memorized geography and history or the categorical 
learning of the bones and muscles of the human body in 
preparation for and recitation of physiology lessons. The 
method of teaching these subjects must be changed because 
we must give less time to them and because some of them 
can be better taught by an indirect method. 

Reading, writing, and spelling need not be taught as separate 
subjects at all. They are, or can be made, a part of every 
other subject in school. Formal grammar and formal arith- 
metic need be given little space. They, too, can be taught 
and learned in the development of other subjects. Arithmetic, 
especially, has been overdeveloped in relation to its impor- 
tance. It need not be given over one-third the time usually 
assigned to it. Even this one-third would develop just as good 
or better arithmetic if it dealt with crops, animals, and farm 
accounts, than if it dealt with abstract numbers, applied by 
impersonal systems of multiplication and division. Grammar 
would be just as good, or better, grammar if it dealt with 
correct diction and sentence structure in expressing natural 
interests, than it would be if developed by parsing and dia- 
gramming impersonal sentences. Reading can be taught just 
as well, and better, when the subject matter being read is of 
dynamic interest to the pupil, than it can when it is composed 





AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM © 317 


of subject matter chosen because of the few new words which 
appear in each successive assignment. Spelling can be con- 
siderably more aptly taught by helping children to form the 
habit of learning the meaning and spelling of all new words 
which appear in their other studies than it can by a categorical 
memorizing of words that have one, two, then three, syllables, 
or memorizing long lists that begin with this or that letter. 
Writing, like arithmetic and grammar, can just as well be 
taught as a part of the technique and subject matter of other 
subjects. If reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and arith- 
metic can be learned by learning agriculture, domestic science, 
civics, geography, and hygiene, then the new subjects of the 
curriculum will have sufficient time in the program of the 
rural school to vitalize rural grade-school education. 

In addition to the modification of the courses just discussed 
there is need for the reconstruction of such courses as geog- 
raphy, history, physiology, and literature by developing them 
more directly toward an interpretation of life. If literature 
is to be taught in the last two years of the primary school, or 
reading to be taught in the earlier grades, there is no reason 
why nature and farm life should not have some place in the 
subject matter of such courses. In geography, the time should 
no longer be given to the memorizing of rivers, capes, bays, 
capitals, and boundaries. What is now known as physical, 
commercial, and human geography should constitute the 
material. The study can then start with the topography of 
the community and the products of the farm, rather than with 
such statements as, “The world is round and like a ball seems 
hanging in the air,” or some other purely abstract concept. 
History, too, can be tied up to the agricultural and industrial 
life of the students just as well as with ancient dates and 
decisive battles. Physiology, rather than consisting of mem- 
orizing the different parts of the human anatomy, should be a 
study of health, sanitation, and hygiene. 

As we stated in a preceding section, school education must 
always consist largely of a set course of study. If this course 
of study is not based upon knowledge of farm work and farm 
life which the child already has, it disregards its most apt 


318 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


approach to the whole educational program. If it consists of 
abstraction and formal disciplines, it will drive them from the 
schools. If it uses farm knowledge and farm interests as the 
chief aims of these courses then it robs the child of the broader 
knowledge and interest which an educated citizen should have. 


LARGER AND MORE ADVANCED SCHOOLS 


Consolidation for School Improvement.—The sole purpose 
of school consolidation is to furnish better education and better 
schools for rural children. The tasks that the consolidation 
program assumes are the tasks of eliminating the weaknesses 
of present and past rural-school organization and the short- 
comings of their conduct. These are large tasks, but they can 
only be accomplished by means of consolidation. It is the 
task of supplying a better curriculum, better teaching, better 
supervision and administration, better support, better organi- 
zation, better physical equipment, better enrollment, and 
better attendance. 

Consolidation is of various types and degrees. The degrees 
and types depend on the immediate object which it is desirous 
to accomplish. The first object of consolidation was that of 
providing high-school training for rural boys and girls. The 
second was the elimination of waste, due to the small enroll- 
ment and attendance in many district schools. The third 
object was to get better graded schools. The final object is 
to have schools which can meet all the requirements of an 
adequate educational program. ‘These objectives have led 
naturally to three types of consolidation, first, the centrali- 
zation of high schools at some one point, this point to serve a 
number of local districts. The lower grades still to be taught 
in the one- and two-room district schools; second, the union 
of two or more local districts; third, the consolidated school 
of a definitely defined area, sometimes a township, and the 
centralization of the whole school program in this larger 
school. This last is the type toward which all other types are 
evolving and the only type of school to which we can look 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM — 319 


for ultimate solution of rural-school problems. This is the 
New Rural School. 

It is calculated that schools serving 90 per cent of the popu- 
lation of the United States are capable of such consolidation 
organization. The only obstacle in the way of complete con- 
solidation is isolation. This isolation may be due to sparse 
population, peculiar topography, bad road organization, or 
poor road equipment. The good roads movement is destined 
to eliminate all these elements by making it possible to travel 
quickly and comfortably any distance which proper organiza- 
tion of the schools requires. In 1920, Indiana had 1,000 con- 
solidated schools; Ohio had 950; Iowa, 480; Minnesota, 255; 
Oklahoma, 185; and Colorado, 79.1. There are today some- 
thing like 11,000 consolidated schools in the United States. 

Practically every weakness of rural-school organization is 
possible of elimination under consolidation. The school can 
be properly graded. Each teacher can be a specialist. The 
school unit is large enough for good administration. The 
functions of the school—study, recitation, demonstration and 
recreation—may be separated. The curriculum can be dif- 
ferentiated. The grounds and buildings can be made adequate 
for extra-curricular activities. 

The weaknesses of the old school buildings were lack of 
room, no opportunity to separate school processes, poor light 
and ventilation. The weaknesses of school equipment were 
poor seats, lack of blackboards, maps, charts, globes, etc., poor 
heating, poor water and sewerage equipment, and absence of 
teaching equipment, especially for the lower grades. The 
weaknesses of the old school grounds were lack of space, lack 
of play equipment, lack of organization. The solution of 
some of these does not automatically follow consolidation. All 
of them are easier supplied however, where the total expense 
of a given area is consolidated in one plant than when it is 
scattered over many plants. There are nine different schools 
per township in Iowa. Each school has one acre of ground. 
Consolidation on a township basis would give nine acres of 


1CampseLi, M., In National Educational Association and Proceedings, 1921, 
Vol. LIX, p. 615. 


320 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


land per school. The same amount of building space as is had 
in the nine district schools would give ample room for all 
needed classrooms, an auditorium, a gymnasium, a library, a 
lunchroom, laboratories, and adequate classification and or- 
ganization of pupils per grade. Duplication of charts, globes, 
dictionaries, etc. can be eliminated and the money once spent 
for nine sets of each of these things can be more efficiently 
expended in school equipment. The cost of digging nine wells 
and supplying them with pumps will equip a modern water 
system and even a modern sewerage system for the one con- 
solidated school. ‘There are the same economic savings to be 
gained by large-scale operation in education as in business, 
where the patronage is assured. 

The attendance per pupil enrolled was 6.8 per cent lower 
in rural schools than in city schools in 1917-1918. The dif- 
ference was 18.6 per cent in Kentucky, and 24.2 per cent in 
Connecticut.’ 

Not all the difference between city and country school at- 
tendance percentages is to be accounted for by the difference 
in the size of the school organizations. Some states are less 
strict in their laws for rural schools than they are for city 
schools. Parents do not so universally find use for their chil- 
dren at home in the city as they do in the country. There 
ean be no doubt, however, that a bigger and better school, 
the addition of the high school and farm-life school, the better 
means of transportation, and the associations with a greater 
number of other children all serve to increase both the enroll- 
ment and attendance of rural children in the schools. If there 
were to be no other gain in enrollment than those additional 
students who now are in high school it would be considerable. 
Eggleston gives the following facts for Virginia: 


Two years ago, one of my assistants worked out a table of cer- 
tain communities in which, before consolidation, the number of 
teachers was fifty-six; after consolidation, forty-five. The gain in 
enrollment was over 50 per cent. Another table showed that in a 

“Statistical Survey of Education, 1917-1918,” Bulletin No. 31, 1920, pp. 


22-23, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Washington Print- 
ing Office, 1920. 





AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM © 321 


given number of communities the enrollment before consolidation 
was 3,185 children; after consolidation 4,814 children, a gain of 
1,629 in enrollment. For the same communities the average attend- 
ance before consolidation was 2,107; after consolidation it was 
3,617. This included consolidation with and without public trans- 
portation. Where public transportation exists the average daily 
attendance is, of course, very much better.t 


These statistics show a gain of 51.2 per cent in these com- 
munities in enrollment and 71.7 per cent in attendance as a 
result of consolidation. The one chief objection imposed by 
the local opponents of consolidation is the cost of transporta- 
tion. Certainly, the gain in enrollment and attendance is 
sufficient for all transportation costs. Particularly is this a 
potent statement when we remember that school attendance 
and not school expense is the apt ideal or criterion of educa- 
tion. ‘ 

The city child has had almost a monopoly on the high 
schools of the nation. Practically all the high-school buildings 
have been located in the towns. The school systems which 
maintained them were city systems. Few country boys or 
girls came, and those who did come came as outsiders and paid 
tuition. Many times this was the first sure step away from 
the farm. The boys and girls were taken out of their own 
homes, out of their own communities, away from farm inter- 
ests, and had their school hours absorbed with subjects and 
interests completely foreign to rural affairs. 

Not all consolidated schools furnish high-school facilities. 
Not all aptly located high schools, which country girls and 
boys attend are attached to rural consolidated schools. One 
of the first objects of the consolidation movement, however, 
was to furnish rural high schools and one of the greatest values 
of the consolidated school is that it makes a high school educa- 
tion possible and accessible to hundreds of thousands of 
country boys and girls to whom such opportunities were not 
accessible under the old school organization. Just what per 
cent of rural grade-school pupils have entered high schools it 


1Eccteston and Brurre, The Work of the Rural School, p. 191, Harper & 
Brothers, New York, 1918. 


322 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


is difficult to calculate. The total number of pupils enrolled 
in secondary schools in 1917-1918 was but 9.8 per cent of the 
total enrollment of all kindergarten, elementary, and secondary 
schools. There were but 10.3 per cent as many pupils enrolled 
in the four years of secondary school work as were enrolled in 
the eight years (in some only seven years) of elementary 
schools. H. R. Bonner, specialist in Educational Statistics, 
United States Bureau of Education, gives the following facts 
from which some calculation of rural high-school enrollment 
can be made: Thirty-four and two-tenths (34.2) per cent of 
the pupils who enter the first grade of the elementary school 
ultimately enter the first grade of the high school and 15 per 
cent graduate. In the city schools, 60 per cent of the begin- 
ners enter the first grade of high school and 20 per cent of all 
public school students graduate.” Fifty-eight (58) per cent 
of all public school pupils are rural children. From these two 
series of facts it is easy to calculate that but 15.5 per cent of 
the rural children enter high school and 11.4 per cent graduate. 
The new rural school must make a high-school education 
accessible to every rural child. Consolidation will go a long 
way in making this possible. 

Secondary Education Provided for Rural Youth.—lf the old 
rural school was ill adapted to the needs of the rural child, the 
high school was worse. The advent of the genuine rural high 
school with a rural curriculum would have come soon in the 
rural consolidated school if we had never been given the Smith- 
Hughes Act. The farm-life school program will come all the 
more rapidly under the encouragement of federal assistance. 
The agricultural vocational education program, on the other 
hand will develop more rapidly because of the consolidation 
movement. North Carolina had a system of farm-life schools 
prior to the passing of the Smith-Hughes Act. Georgia had 
Congressional district, agricultural, high schools. Mississippi 
had country high schools and a number of other states gave 
aid to village high schools to support agricultural training. 

*“Biennial Survey of Education 1916-1918,” Vol. III, Bulletin No. 90, 1919, 


pp. 146-147, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education. 
* National Education Association, Addresses and Proceedings, 1921, 59 p, 799. 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM — 323 


New York has a number of sub-agricultural schools with 
courses which run for six months per year for three years. 

The vocational, agricultural, secondary school system estab- 
lished in every state in the United States under the Smith- 
Hughes Act is the one outstanding step taken in the direction 
of making education beyond the elementary grades possible 
for rural boys and girls. This act will probably ultimately 
establish a high school within the reach of every farm boy 
and girl in the United States. These high schools will teach 
agriculture and domestic science to rural boys and girls and 
adults. The Act provides for schools, teachers, and teacher 
training. Education can be pursued throughout a four-year 
course, through a shorter period, by night school, continuation 
schools, and farm project work. Without doubt, in a few 
more years many more persons will be studying agriculture and 
home economics in these schools, than are studying these sub- 
jects in colleges. Thousands of boys and girls who would never 
have entered high schools, had these schools not been vocation- 
alized, will be in these secondary schools. The Smith-Hughes 
schools and the rural consolidated schools should, and will, 
work hand in hand in offering more and better education to 
rural folk. 

By way of summarizing the part which consolidation is 
destined to play in the advent of the New Rural School, let 
us list the advantage of a consolidated school over all other 
school systems: 

1. It makes possible a better school curriculum. 

. It enlists and consolidates financial support. 
. It insures better school buildings. 

. It provides better school equipment. 

. It makes possible better supervision and administration. 
. It provides bigger school grounds. 

. It grades the school work. 

. It specializes the work of the teachers. 

. It increases enrollment. 

10. It increases attendance. 

11. It makes possible rural high-school training. 
12. It increases the scope of vocational work. 


OOnNnN DD OrP W bo 


324 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


13. It increases community activity and develops commun- 
ity consciousness. 

14. It encourages good roads. 

15. There is considerable evidence that it increases the value 
of lands adjacent to it. 

It performs its functions both as an educational and com- 
munity institution better than any other school does. 

It is the New Rural School. 

Community Activities and Consolidated Schools —The con- 
solidated school is far more of a community institution than 
the small district school ever was. It is not only an apt place 
to hold community meetings but it enlarges community activ- 
ities and develops a community consciousness which never 
existed before. The act of consolidating in itself develops a 
community consciousness. The system of transporting stu- 
dents forms a network of community organizations. The school 
building is generally equipped with an auditorium in which 
school and community meetings can be held. The grounds are 
large enough and there are enough students to develop athletic 
teams. Many times moving-picture equipment is installed in 
the school. Farmers’ institutes, extension courses, and demon- 
strations are staged at the school. The teachers are great 
enough in numbers to constitute a community influence. The 
building is a pride to the community. A community library 
is often housed at the school. The community is in every way 
enlivened and bettered because it, for the first time in its exist- 
ence, probably, has a real community institution. 

J. H. Cook, State Superintendent of Public Instruction of 
Ohio, quotes the following from a resident of a consolidated 
district: 

Before the schools were centralized my son seemed to know no 
one when we rode about the township. Now as we ride about, a 
boy or a girl will yell “Hello, Sammy,” or wave greetings at a dis- 
tance. When I inquire, “Who is this?” he often gives names en- 
tirely unfamiliar to me. Through my son I have become ac- 
quainted with many excellent people whom, otherwise, I would 
never have known. 


1Coox, J. H., “The Consolidated School as a Community Center,” Publica- 
tion American Sociological Society, Vol. li, pp. 97-105, 1916. 





AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM — 325 


Mr. Cook made a survey of a number of communities and 
found that there were over ten times as many public meetings 
held in these communities the first year after consolidation, as 
there were the year before. Eggleston and Bruire relate about 
the same experience in Virginia. 


THE COMMUNITY AND EXTENSION PROGRAMS OF THE RURAL 
SCHOOL 


Project and Demonstration Work.—The new rural school 
will have a school garden, from five to ten acres of demonstra- 
tion plot, and will include in its program home-project work. 
It will be prepared to do this because it will be a big consoli- 
dated school and will have teachers especially trained in agri- 
culture. It will have provision for a hot school lunch and 
provision for sewing. These will furnish a basis for project 
and demonstration work in home economics. A few years ago 
such a scheme would have smacked of pure imagination or 
would have seemed like an Utopian dream. There are now 
so many examples of these things that to relate individual 
instances is no longer apt. Nor are all these programs at- 
tached to the Smith-Hughes, or even to high schools. So 
called junior-project work is becoming a system. Boys and 
girls from ten to thirteen years of age are organized in club 
and project work. College extension specialists in boys’ and 
girls’ club work have found the school an advantageous unit 
of club and project organization. Farm and home demonstra- 
tion agents work with the school teacher and school children. 
The International Harvester Company has developed an elab- 
orate system of vitalized agricultural teaching. ‘“Four-H” 
clubs have been organized in hundreds of elementary schools. 
Hot school lunches have been provided in one-room schools. 
The combination of the new ideas, the larger school, and the 
agricultural and domestic science teachers will ultimately make 
these things universal. With the coming of these potential 
phases and methods of education the extension of the school 
program to the farm and home and to cover all-year-round 
projects is sure to follow. 


326 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


The school has so long confined its activities to such narrow 
limits and its subjects have had so little practical value to life 
and work that we have come to think of education only in rela- 
tion to those who are of so-called school age. There is nothing 
about the subject matter of education, human nature, or the 
learning process, that need confine education to children. If 
the school can impart a knowledge of facts and processes that 
are valuable to life, this knowledge is as valuable to a person 
of one age as another. We have thought of adult education 
only in terms of the “moonlight schools’ of Kentucky and 
North Carolina. The New Rural School will lead us to think 
of it in terms of an extension of the whole school program to 
the adults of the community. 

Adult education for the elimination of adult illiteracy has 
furnished the classic examples of rural adult education in the 
United States. The story of the moonlight schools reads like 
a novel.t There are seventeen states now maintaining schools 
for adult illiterates. These schools have carried their pro- 
grams far beyond the purpose of merely eliminating illiteracy. 
The author has seen high-class, well dressed, prosperous, intel- 
ligent North Carolina farmers who were attending adult night 
schools. The statement of one of these men is indicative of 
a new day in rural education. This man said: 


Yes I can read and write. I can’t remember when I learned to do 
either. But there are lots of things I don’t know which the younger 
generation is learning at school. I just thought I would like to 
avail myself of the same opportunities my children have. So I am 
going to night school. 


The value of these adult illiterate schools have kept us from 
seeing other types and possibilities of adult education. 

When the teaching of agriculture, domestic science, health, 
and civics has become universal, when the consolidated and 
Smith-Hughes schools have become a part of every rural com- 
munity’s educational equipment, when boys’ and girls’ farm 
and home-project work has registered their values a little more 
extensively and the teachers of these practical subjects have 


*See Survey, Vol. XXXV, pp. 429-431, January, 1916. 


AN ADEQUATE RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM — 327 


become all-year-round agents of rural education; we may ex- 
pect to see adult education at the school, and on the farm, a 
part of the regular rural school program. 

Community Education—The types of work which have 
stood out at Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Sparks, Maryland, 
as phenomenal were striking because they were exceptional. 
Today there are thousands of consolidated schools which have 
carried their farm and community programs so far beyond 
these early attainments, that these examples are no longer 
striking, except that they pointed the way for others. 

The centering of community activities at the big school 
building, the community lbrary at the school, institutes, rec- 
reation and dramatic programs, farm-life institutes, school and 
community fairs, school and community pageants, and the 
like have brought the community to the school. Boys’ and 
girls’ club work projects, and farm-demonstration teaching 
have taken the school program to the community. Ultimately, 
these things will lead to a program of extension which will be 
as elaborate and more vital than the extension program of the 
Agricultural Colleges. Health, hygiene, and sanitary inspec- 
tion and teaching, civics and moral instruction, recreation, and 
community cooperation, as well as practical farm and home 
education, will center the community at the school and radiate 
the influence of the school throughout the community. 

In this chapter we have presented many matters as if they 
were quite universally accomplished facts. They are not uni- 
versal yet, by any means. They have demonstrated their 
feasibility and value wherever they have been tried. They 
are ideals to be striven for. They are indicative of what the 
New Rural School must and will be. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Bru, D. G., Rural Education, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1923. 

SNEDDEN, D., Sociological Determination of Objectives in Education, J. B. 
Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1921. 

Betts, G. H., New Ideals in Rural Schools, Houghton, Mifflin Company, New 
York, 1913. 

Eacteston and Bruire, The Work of The Rural School, Harper & Brothers, 
New York, 1918. 


CHAPTER XV 
THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 
PREVALENT NOTIONS ABOUT RURAL HEALTH 


False Popular Notions.—Popular notions about health, 
health conditions, and health opportunities in rural districts 
are often incorrect. A great many people imagine that rural 
inhabitants live in a state of continuous high health. They 
think of country people as a hardy folk. This semi-fallacious 
notion is held by both city and country people. The country 
people take pride in the notion, and pity those who are robbed 
of the opportunities for a hardy life such as country people 
live. City people assume that the country people, both male 
and female, are capable of a much more arduous life and of 
more strenuous labors than they, themselves, could endure. 
These conclusions are reached from two seemingly perfectly 
valid bases. In the first place, it is observed that country 
people work long and unstandardized hours, in good and bad 
weather, and do heavy work. Often the domestic servants in 
the city homes are girls who come from country districts. The 
willingness of these country girls to subject themselves to the 
burden of tasks, which the upper- and middle-class city women 
would not do, leads these same city women to think of country 
women as physically their superior. In the second place, they 
reason that fresh air, fresh food, and fresh water are all con- 
ducive to good health. They know that all of these things are 
had in abundance in the country and they, therefore, reason 
that from good health opportunities must come good health. 
Country people, likewise, reason that they are free from the 
disease evils of the city—congestion, lack of fresh air, cold- 
storage food, and inside work. These lines of reasoning are 
not exactly fallacious, but they fail to comprehend all the 
facts. 

328 





THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 329 


There are also some fallacious popular notions about rural 
disease. The story of vacation parties returning from country 
districts infested with virulent typhoid germs is usually an 
exaggeration of fact. The popular notion that country districts 
contribute more than their share of insanity, especially of the 
female insane, because of country loneliness, is belied by the 
statistics on insanity. The notion prevails that, because dirt 
is found everywhere on the farm and because even filth is 
bound to be found about farm premises, therefore, the farm- 
stead teems with disease germs. This is also a false conclusion, 
based upon the notion that disease germs are spontaneously 
generated in filth. 

Correct Popular Notions about Rural Health—There are 
some facts, about country health conditions and sanitation, 
which are so universal that they are well known to all people. 
There are certain diseases such as trachoma, typhoid, and 
entritis, that are much more prevalent in rural districts than 
in the nation as a whole. Insanitation is almost universal in 
rural districts. Personal hygiene is at low ebb among rural 
people. Health agencies and medical experts are practically 
all located in towns and cities. The knowledge of these facts is 
universal, and the popular notions about their menace is 
correct. 

GENERAL Facts ABouT Rurau HEALTH 


Rural Health Advantages and Disadvantages.—A quick in- 
troduction to the facts which make or destroy health among 
farm population can probably be made by categorically listing 
the advantages and disadvantages which inhere in rural life 
and develop out of farm processes: 


Health Advantages: 
Abundance of fresh air and sunshine. 
Small number of persons per area. 
More outdoor life and exercise. 
Plainer, simpler, fresher food. 
Few accidents. 
Absence of noise and other disturbances. 


330 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Health Disadvantages: 
Exposure to weather. 
Heavy strains. 
Poor medical and drug facilities. 
Abundance of animals, insects, and other disease carriers. 
Overwork at times. 


There are numberless other health facts which are prevalent 
or lacking in rural districts, but those listed are the ones which 
most automatically inhere in rural life conditions themselves. 

Comparison of Urban and Rural Health Facts—(1) Death 
rates. The rural death rate in the United States has always 
been lower than the urban death rate. 


TaBLE 48.—RuURAL AND URBAN Deratu Rates FoR REGISTRATION AREA OF 
THE UNITED States! 


Rural Urban 
Year Urban Rural Advantage | Advantage 


—_— [| | 


LOO TSI OUD LS Gokes i Mists. cctakale mh oe 17.4 14.1 3.3 
OOO LO LOS Caaer rama ty sa nia ees 16.4 14.2 2.2 
URED ON ale Se 0 ce ea oie eG 15.4 14.3 LR) | 
IO eae SENS Mis Bitind ie sulk 14.9 13.9 1.0 
MOL Ge er cue Oe Ae Mea en a atc an, Site 15.1 14.1 (Pa 
LO Lacan tn ie meen, rae, Riateece 14.7 14.0 5, 
LOL Annee Gia Berea Uh wu 4.4 14.0 4 
LOL OeNeeat, ira Sea. eat cee ee Loe 14.6 5 
LE tects wed kus oe Mean aha ge a 15.2 14.6 6 
LO Les ee iets Fotis WR tes th aleiace Shans 19.3 1Se1 1.2 
Ol re phan ee obty cave cites the" 13.5 13.4 al 
RS PANE e ci OS ak A re ote oa rate ear ata 13.7 14.0 3 
UES A Ss PrN Sis fe Uae Ne 11.8 12.9 12k 
LUZ COGN atc Se Rito NU er ki tins 12.3 13.3 1.0 


These facts, which are outstanding in these data, are that 
the death rates in both rural and urban areas have declined 
fairly steadily, but that the urban rate has been reduced much 
more rapidly than the rural rate. While the urban rate was 
being reduced 4.5 per thousand of living persons, the rural 
rate was reduced but 1.2. In four states the urban rate has 
declined until it is now lower than the rural rate. 

* All counties having in them towns or cities with populations of over 


10,000 were taken as urban. All others were taken as rural. Mortality 
Statistics, United States. 1914 to 1922. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 331 


TABLE 49—Srates In Wuicnh Rurau Dreatu Rate Excereps Ursan DEATH 
Rate ! 


California Massachusetts New York Washington 

Year Pi aidiaeis MAbienEtL: | Gama poset TRAC 
Urban | Rural | Urban | Rural | Urban | Rural | Urban | Rural 
LOL ae et 14.0 fool 14.6 14.6 14.5 15:3 8.4 7.9 
ULE epee «2 13.8 LoaG 14.3 15.0 14733 15.4 7.8 Sa 
BO) ty oc) Load 132D 1hel 1525 14.5 15.7 (fy: 8.2 
Pohd cer. 1356 14.1 14.9 15.4 14.4 15.8 fos 7.8 


The urban death rate fell below the rural death rate in New 
York in 1910; in Massachusetts in 1914; in Washington in 
1915; and in California in 1916. While the cities have been 
solving their health problems, the country has been doing 
little to solve its health problems, although all the indications 
are that it has the greater inherent health advantages. 

Information obtainable from the examination of men drafted 
for service in the army in 1917 and 1918 furnishes some health 
data. The classification was based upon selected cities of 
over 25,000 inhabitants, which are called urban, and all others, 
which are called rural. This classifies thousands of men as 
rural inhabitants whose whole lives have been lived in fairly 
good-sized cities. Furthermore, it is stated in the report that 
it is highly probable that city examining boards were much 
more critical than boards which operated in small cities, towns, 
and the open country. Accepting the figures as they are given, 
the following facts are revealed: ? 

1. There were found 557 defects per 1,000 men examined. 
For rural districts, the rate was 528, and for urban districts 
it was 609. The rural rate was about seven-eighths that of the 
urban. 

2. For 115 specific defects, the rural rate was higher in 54, 
and the urban in 61. 

3. The five diseases and defects in which the rural rate was 
most pronounced were pterygium (eye disease), trachoma 


1Op. cit., 1914, pp. 152-168; 1915, pp. 144-152; 1916, pp. 108-127; 1917, pp. 
126-143. 

* Defects Found in Drafted Men, pp. 348-408, War Department, Washing- 
ton, D. C., 1920, 


332 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


(eye disease), mental deficiency, muscular rheumatism, and 
bullet or other recent wounds. The five in which the urban 
rate was most pronounced were drug addiction, otitis media 
(abscessed ear), underweight, underheight, perforated ear- 
drum, and cataract. 

4. Some outstanding diseases of rural districts were: 


Pellag ra ee ae mate) vek Gn eRe, de ie ere, 6.50 times city rate 
TPYAOHOT See ee a La, Cees eer ae eed se 2.23 times city rate 
Mental denciencyia seun i ee ect .ciee ei este 1.82 times city rate 
ATIOTIATAY REL RUN NL cele nr ee eterna te eet tee aka 1.57 times city rate 
CAN Cera Suan Otek aL enUL eamnr coy en Yar, 1.43 times city rate 
Pulmonary) tuberculosisins san ser ces tee tes 1.29 times city rate 
Benignetamorias. Gee suse e vik oe ket eee 1.22 times city rate 
AsthmaAg wach Gare waeeiwins Arete eere en ne 1.21 times city rate 


5. The mortality from the common diseases in the camps 
decreased in ratio to the number of urban recruits.* 

A number of fairly careful comparisons have been made of 
defects found in urban and rural school children. The most 
extensive analysis of this kind was found among 500,000 school 
children. The following table gives the comparative per- 
centages for various defects: 


TaBLE 50.—DeEFeEctTs IN RuRAL AND URBAN SCHOOL CHILDREN 


Urban, Rural Rural Ex- 


Defects Per Cent | Per Cent | °°S® Per 
Cent 
Delechivesceecth cere ae te eae 33 48 15 
Defectivertonsilsasuets sha ce bee le ee 16 28 12 
AGENGIGSE net wurat vickse bukeeke otishou h tee eteee gs 12 23 12 
Defeckivetevessmeiie 1 ae icin t Wieleie s ey oie 12 23 13 
WEAIMUETIE IT oe meet ae, A en Ad isee Grates trues ti 16 8 





———_ 


In addition to the data presented in the table, it was found 
that rural children had four times as many ear defects as 
urban children. In Renville County, Minnesota, a survey of 

1 Love, A. G., and Davenport, C. B., “Immunity of City-bred Recruits,” 


Archives of Internal Medicine, August, 1919, Vol. XXIV, pp. 129-153, 
* Woop, T. D., Health Essentials for Rural School Children. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 333 


5,826 school children made by Miss Bengston found that 
4,095, or 81 per cent, of them had one or more defects. 

Dr. Frederick L. Hoffman of the Prudential Life Insurance 
Company gives the following data: ' 


TaBLE 51.—DisrasEs CausiInc More DEATHS IN COUNTRY THAN IN CITIES 


Themen City Death | Rural Death! Rural 


Rate Rate Excess 
ATC OVeY cet, s Ac Sinisa Reem eal 22.6 24.4 1.8 
RYE EA IAUICVED es aes oar tee tea tte ots 2.6 oat 1.1 
RE ETED tere ee hese hab tered orn as 14.8 27.8 13.0 
MOV RCCL ee Boel ivi Ae 6 tel uien «eae 6.8 10.2 3.4 
POURS CALI gee een WI Shin aa sone a St 8.4 8.6 2 
Apoplexy and paralysis: : ) 00s cai. 87.9 19 24.0 
Disease of circulatory system......... 178.1 179.6 1.5 





The net excess for these diseases per 100,000 living persons 
is 290.° 

The mortality statistics for the registration area of the 
United States show about the same ratios. They show, in 
addition, that smallpox, measles, whooping cough, pellagra, 
epilepsy, and convulsions of infants are greater causes of 
death among rural than among urban populations. 

This rather elaborate array of data is given, not to prove 
that the rural morbidity and mortality rates are higher than 
in the city, but to set forth the health problems which con- 
front rural communities. The following table, together with 
those presented earlier in this chapter shows that the general 
death rate among the rural population is not as great as among 
the urban population, but deaths from certain types of dis- 
eases are in excess in rural areas. 

Summary of the Weak Spots in the Rural Health Situation: 

1. The great number of defects found in rural school chil- 
dren, the fact that the infant death rate is high and that chil- 
dren’s diseases which leave bad after effects are more prevalent 


1Horrman, F. L., Rural Health and Welfare, pp. 6, 138, Prudential Life 
Insurance Company of America. 
* Rate is per 100,000 living persons in population. 


334 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


TaBLE 52.—DratH Rate BY Types OF DISEASES 














City Rate| Rural es ae 
Class of Disease per Rate per | ae 
100,000 100,000 100,000 
CRENGIALS AG as Sate ere Lee ea eee RE 396.0 350.6 — 45.4 
Of the nervous system and organs of special 
HEN GES Ds Aa EN en Neh) ghee Ma Meeks oes eee 129.6 139.4 + 9.8 
OF CITEULaLORyiSy Stet ne ki ce ee eke eee PEERS 182.4 — 40.1 
Ot TESPIFATOLY SV StEIL Los bina we eee eee 207 .9 146.5 — 61.4 
Of digestive is ySteniiae ier petit) west tae 158.5 240.0 + 34.5 
Non-venereal of genital urinary system... .. 140.9 LOLS — 39.8 
he; Peral Sta testen me eh bee cake Bk os ae gery 15.3 + 2.4 
Of skin and cellular tissue)... ...0 40.0... 4.6 4.2 —- 4 
Of bones and organs of locomotion......... 4.2 1.8 — 2.3 
Malformation sin ae caret ek coe ott. eevee ious aan 17.0 14.7 — 10.5 
HarlyinianGy 28 ween: pert Bak os oie etek 81.6 i Weal — 13.2 
Oleh ea POs Siu ine iinnn GAOT N, ozone tate Nahata ck Bele 9.0 22.2 + 25.9 
Eixterni al Gavises tad pion rie tuk ec te eke aati bes 120.0 94.0 — 25.9 








The plus and minus signs refer to rural excess or deficiency. 


among rural people, all go to show that the early life of an 
individual is lived under a health handicap on the farm. 

2. The facts that fewer rural recruits were rejected than city 
recruits, that the rural death rate is lower than the city death 
rate, and that farm people are considered good risks by life in- 
surance companies, all tend to show that the general condition 
of rural living offsets the earlier handicaps of rural life. 

3. The study of the death rate for the nation, or for the 
separate states, shows that the city, by attacking its health 
problem, is rapidly overcoming the country’s inherent health 
advantages. 

4. Diseases due to exposure, strain, and overwork are in 
excess in rural districts. 

5. Diseases fostered by insanitation and lack of personal 
hygiene are in excess in rural districts. 

6. Deaths and diseases due to accidents are comparatively 
few among rural people. A study of the statistics given above 
justifies these conclusions; and these conclusions set the major 
health tasks of rural communities. 

‘Mortality Statistics of the United States, 1917, pp. 126-129. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 335 


THE RURAL HOME AND HEALTH 


Food and Water.—Proper food, proper care of food, proper 
preparation of food, and correct food consumption habits are 
the chief causes of good health. People who live in rural homes 
have great natural advantages over all other sections of the 
national population. They are in a position which makes it 
comparatively easy to have fresh vegetables and fruits, fresh 
milk and butter, and fresh water. There are problems, how- 
ever, which attach themselves to each of these food elements. 
Fresh vegetables and fruits decay easily; the garbage from 
them, if left about the house, soon becomes a breeding place 
for disease germs. All these foods demand proper preparation 
for consumption. Fresh milk and butter must be handled in 
the most careful manner, or they become very ready carriers 
of disease germs. If it be from a source that is liable to pollu- 
tion, water, however much it may sparkle, is not pure. The 
sources from which foods are gotten are near at hand on the 
farm, but the facilities for the proper care of them are lacking 
more often in the rural than in the city home. Each farm 
family controls the sources of the greater part of its food 
supply. To control them correctly is both expensive and 
difficult. A survey of 51,544 farm homes, made by the United 
States Public Health Service, disclosed the fact that 68 per 
cent of the water supplies, from which water was used for 
drinking and culinary purposes, was obviously exposed to 
potentially dangerous contamination from privy contents or 
from promiscuous deposits of human excreta, and that, in a 
majority of cases, the water supply was exposed to unwhole- 
some pollution from stable yards and pigpens. On only 32.88 
per cent of the farms were the dwellings effectively screened 
against flies in the summer time.’ Ina survey of fifty farms in 
Howard County, Missouri, Lehmann found the bacillus coli 
(bacteria from some warm-blooded animal) in every well or 
cistern of the fifty, proving that, in every case, these sources 
of farm-home water supplies were susceptible to contamina- 


tLumspen, L. L., “Rural Sanitation,” Public Health Bulletin No. 94, United 
Public Health Service, Treasury Department, Washington, D. C., 1918. 


336 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


tion.’ In Greenville County, South Carolina, 93.42 per cent 
of the water supplies was regarded as unsafe.’ 

The location, construction, and care of the source of the 
farm home water supply are major considerations in rural 
health, for typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, and many other 
parasitic diseases are carried by water. Two of these diseases, 
typhoid fever and dysentery, are much more prevalent in rural 
than in urban districts. 

In the Sikeston, Missouri, Community, 71.34 per cent of the 
wells or cisterns were located within 100 feet of the privy; 
34.83 per cent were within less than 50 feet. In this same 
community, 23.12 per cent of the wells or cisterns were within 
100 feet of the animal pens and yards, and 11.83 per cent 
were within less than 50 feet. of such sources of possible pollu- 
tion.? In a vast majority of cases, country wells are shallow, 
the walls and curbing are poor, and the wells are seldom 
cleaned. In the Southern states, the open well prevails at 
thousands of farm homes. In states just a little farther north, 
the shallow cistern is in use. In mountainous sections, the 
use of springs is prevalent. At probably two-thirds of the 
farm homes of the nation, shallow wells furnish the farm water 
supply. Deep wells are the only comparatively sure source of 
pure water, for they alone do not demand the care of filters, 
and are little liable to surface pollution. 

The problem of handling the milk supply on the farm is 
as difficult as that of handling the water supply. In fact, 
more difficult, for, once a safe source of water supply is con- 
structed, the water problem is largely solved, whereas the 
handling of the milk supply demands constant care under 
the best conditions. City sources of milk are generally care- 
fully inspected. The dairy herds are given tuberculosis tests, 
the places and methods of milking, cooling, and storing milk 
are all inspected by city, county, or state authorities; on the 

1 'Taytor, Car C. antl LeHMann, E. W., An Economic, Social and Sanitary 
Survey of Ashland Community, Howard County, Missouri, Missouri Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, 1920, Columbia, Missouri. 

* United States Health Bulletin No. 94, Washington, D. C. 


*'TayLor, Cart C., Yoprr, F. R. and Zimmerman, C. C., A Social Study of 
Farm Tenancy in Southeast Missourt, (unpublished). 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 337 


farm, there is no such overhead care exercised. The dairy 
cows are not often tested for tuberculosis, the places for milk- 
ing are generally inadequate, methods of milking and place 
of storage are not inspected. Often the milk is kept in open 
crocks or cans in a cave, or some other cool place. In the Col- 
umbia Community, Boone County, Missouri, only 59.4 per cent 
of the homes, and in the Sikeston, Missouri, Community, only 
5.8 per cent of the homes, were provided with refrigerators or 
ice boxes.’ A refrigerator of some kind is essential for the 
proper care of milk, butter, and other dairy products. There 
are about twenty diseases definitely traced to milk; among 
these are typhoid, tuberculosis, and dysentery, of which dis- 
eases the rural death rate greatly exceeds the urban death rate. 

The chief health problems related to vegetables are not those 
traceable to diseases caused by fresh foods, though dysentery, 
typhoid fever, cholera, and parasitic diseases may result from 
the eating of contaminated, uncooked vegetables. The chief 
health problems, that attach themselves to vegetables and 
fruits, are those which result from the decay of this food and 
the garbage from these materials. Too often, the method of 
handling the offeasts of fruits and vegetables is the open gar- 
bage or “slop can,” kept in or near the house. This is easily 
infested with flies and mosquitoes, both of which are carriers 
of disease, and neither of which have any hesitancy in travel- 
ing from barnyards or privies and garbage cans to the table. 
In the Sikeston, Missouri, Community, 57.8 per cent of the 
housewives threw dishwater and house refuse in the yard. In 
this community, many of the families had no hogs nor chickens. 
In a community where these animals are prevalent, the sludge 
and garbage, after a period of accumulation at the house, is 
generally fed to them. 

The amount and types of food consumed by farm families 
are generally adequate; although it is probable that farmers 
consume more of the heavy food than even manual laborers re- 
quire. The average farm family of four and eight-tenths adult 
males consumes 1,653 more pounds of food per year than does 
the average workman’s family of the city. This is 346 pounds 


* [bid. 


338 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


per adult male.t These data are for 950 farm families from 
fourteen different states, and from 280 workingmen’s families 
in eleven representative cities of the United States.2 They 
are, therefore, probably representative of the Nation. The 
following table analyzes the diet of these two groups: 


TABLE 53.—AVERAGE YEARLY CONSUMPTION OF CERTAIN Foops IN URBAN AND 
RurAL FAMILIES WITH EQUIVALENT OF 4.8 MALES PER FAMILY 





City 
Kind of Food Working- | Farm 
men’s Families 
Families 
Pound Pound 
Meat, eggs, lard, and lard substitutes............... 907 1,116 
Butter ancdeheese sea se oy ay eis beeen pe ek eR eee 144 179 
Othendairy products ue Rea Ce eet aes Len eal 2,318 2,616 
Cream and evaporated milk i. epee. oe as be 98 55 
Sugars, syrups, molasses, and honey................ 287 474 
Hruits: fresh» canned anddried Beau valve mee nee 952 1,207 
Vegetables: fresh, canned, and dried............... iy Lid, 3,248 
CVOTMEG er Fe Never elite us ate RON en ESR eee 58 39 
Cereals andithem products. 24%) (eee aes ie cee 1,742 1,362 


It will be seen from this table, that farm families consume 
more meats, butter, cheese, milk products, fresh cream, sugars, 
fruit, and vegetables. City families consume more evaporated 
milk, coffee, and cereal productions. It is quite probable, that 
farm families eat too much meat, and in the Southern States 
too much cereal, especially corn bread. The table reveals quite 
clearly that farm families have diets which, for health pur- 
poses, are superior to those of city workmen. The surveyors— 
doctors who gathered the information for city workingmen’s 

1These data were calculated upon the basis of a scientific standard of living 
by means of which all members of the family were equated in terms of 
adult male consumers. The calculations and comparisons were made by 
C. C. ZimmerRMAN in his Master’s Thesis The Standard of Living on the 
Farm, North Carolina State College, Raleigh, North Carolina. 

* Bureau of Applied Economics, “Standards of Living,” p. 3., Bulletin No. 7, 
Washington, D. C.; and United States Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ 


Bulletin No. 1082, and Department Bulletin No. 410. 
87Tbid, and ZIMMERMAN Thesis. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 339 


families, asserted that their diets were deficient in whole milk, 
fresh vegetables, and fruits. Farm families consume 298 
pounds more milk, 255 pounds more fruit, and 1,071 pounds 
more vegetables each year than do city workingmen’s families. 

Farmers’ wives and daughters are popularly thought to be 
universally good cooks. There is a vast difference between 
merely being able, with one’s own hands, to cook food to suit 
habitual tastes, and in being a skilled dietitian. Farm women 
need to learn proper methods of canning, preserving, and cook- 
ing as well as, or more than, other women, because the whole 
task falls on them, whereas specialized agencies generally do 
these things for city homes. They need to study balanced 
diets, child feedings, and food values for the sake of the health 
of their families. 

Sewage and Sludge Disposal—tThe chief health menaces of 
improper disposal of sewage and sludge are: (1) Sewage, 
particularly human excreta, which carries disease germs by 
means of contaminated water supplies, and because of being 
infested with flies. (2) Improper means and methods of dis- 
posal which create menaces. (3) Lack of toilet facilities which 
leads to unhygienic and health-damaging habits. 

There is not a health need in rural districts greater hen 
the need for sanitary and well-equipped toilets. There is not 
a problem to which the solution is better known. Unhappily, 
the convenience of the big out of doors, the privacy of the 
isolated farm family, and the high cost of individual water 
and sewage systems have left this problem largely unsolved. 
Out-door privies furnish the almost universal and sole means 
for the disposal of human excreta. The majority of them are 
not screened. Many times, even, such facilities are lacking 
on the farm. Surface drainage and seepage, flies and other 
insects, and even dust particles carried in the wind menace 
the food and water supplies of the farm family. The privy, for 
convenience’ sake, is practically always located close to the 
dwelling, which adds to the menace. We have already noted 
the proximity of the wells to privies in one community (the 
Sikeston, Missouri, Community). Information from other 
communities would but corroborate these facts as being repre- 


340 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


sentative. In the “Sanitary Survey of Fifteen counties,” in 
as many different states, made in 1914, 1915, and 1916, by the 
United States Public Health Service,’ it was found that, in ten 
of these fifteen counties, over one-fifth of the rural homes 
were without toilets of any kind. The rate ran as high as 67.9 
per cent in Orange County, North Carolina, and 73.8 per cent 
in Union County, Mississippi. In every county, in the fifteen 
states covered by the survey, over 90 per cent of the homes 
had “grossly insanitary methods of disposing of human ex- 
creta.” In nine of the counties, the percentages were 99. 

There are six well-known methods of disposing of human 
excreta on the farm. The first and best is that of an indoor 
toilet with a septic tank, or other decomposing agency. Be- 
cause of its high cost, it will be a long while before this method 
is at all universal. There are five “so-called dry methods” 
which should make sanitary disposal on farms universal. These 
five methods are known as the “earth pit,” the ‘water-tight 
privy,’ the “pail closet,” the “dry earth, ashes, or lime closet,” 
and the “chemical closet.” ? 

In every type of closet, the requisite for sanitation is screen- 
ing from flies, guarding against seepage and chemical decom- 
position. No one of them is expensive and every farm should 
be equipped with one type or another of these toilets. 

The failure to make sanitary disposal of sludge and sewage 
always creates a nuisance about the premises. The casting 
of dishwater in the back yard makes possible surface draining 
or seeping into wells and cisterns, creates mud holes, and at- 
tracts flies and other insects, and chickens. In addition, it 
establishes a very unsightly spot near the dwelling. In the 
Sikeston, Missouri, Community, only 9 out of 428 houses 
were provided with sinks and other facilities for the disposal 
of sludge. In a survey of 10,000 farm homes, made through 
the home demonstration agents of the United States Depart- 


* Bulletin No. 94, “Rural Sanitation, United States Department of Health, 
Washington, D. C. 

? Warren, G. M., “Sewage and Sewerage of Farm Homes,” Farmers’ Bulletin 
No. 1227, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., 1922; 
and Lumspren, L. L. and Srimzs, C. W., “Safe Disposal of Human Excreta at 
unscreened Homes,” Public Health Bulletin, No. 68, Treasury Department, 
United States Public Health Service, Washington, D. C., 1917. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 341 


ment, it was found that 52 per cent of the homes had sinks. 
In many cases, these sinks are household conveniences only, 
the sludge being piped for disposal to some spot not far from 
the house." 

Bad personal habits, which menace health, are bound to re- 
sult from bad sanitary environments and lack of health facil- 
ities. Because farm homes are lacking in running water, 
toilets, and sewage disposal, farm people fail to take baths, 
wash their teeth, or even properly cleanse their hands and the 
food material before getting meals, and neglect to respond 
immediately to nature’s calls. The results are constipation, 
uncleanliness, and ill health. 

The Farmstead.—There are possible many things in the 
location and organization of the farmstead which may con- 
stitute menaces to health. The location of the barns, pens, and 
yards, in which animals are kept, may be bad. They should 
be at a safe distance from the house, and located in such places 
as to assure drainage away from the well and the house. 
Manure and other materials in which flies breed should be 
well taken care of. Rats and other rodents and vermin are 
almost sure to infest old buildings. The house itself is likely 
to be old, and to be heated, lighted, and ventilated poorly. 
The whole farmstead is the living place of farm people. It 
should be located more in reference to health than even to 
farm convenience. Its location on high ground, its organi- 
zation with reference to buildings and livestock, its building 
material and its planting are all matters which must be given 
careful consideration for the sake of the health of the people 
who live and work there. 


FARMING AND HEALTH 


Farm Work and Health.—Farmers are almost universally 
hard-working people. Farm work must be carried on at such 
seasons, and during such hours, as crop and animal care de- 
mand. The necessities of the farm and the farm-home pro- 


*Warp, Fuorence E., United States Department of Agriculture, Depart- 
ment Circular No. 148, Washington, D. C., November, 1920. 


342 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


cesses lead, in the case of practically all farm men and women, 
and often in the case of even farm boys and girls, to extreme 
and damaging fatigue. This is probably held to account for 
the great number of deaths from apoplexy among farmers. 
Farmers are subjected to the severity of all kinds of weather. 
Livestock and poultry demand the greatest care when the 
weather is bad. The results are that men often work with 
wet clothes and cold feet. Undoubtedly, these facts contribute 
materially to the high rate of muscular rheumatism and pul- 
monary tuberculosis, which prevails in rural populations. 
Farmers are often subjected to severe and sudden strains in 
handling animals and lifting heavy loads. Because of this, 
hernia is common among farmers. Women are compelled 
to lift many heavy loads of fuel and water. This, together 
with the driving care of household duties, often places them 
in a precarious condition at the time of childbirth. Even 
the children’s health is, at times, jeopardized, by being too 
early asked to participate in farm tasks, or by being compelled 
to do things which they are not yet strong enough to do. There 
is scarcely a farmer or farm woman, particularly in the areas 
where the farm entrepreneur does his own work, who does not 
overdo, either constantly or at some time. 

Farm Accidents.—Because the persons injured by accidents 
in the occupation of farming do not suffer the loss of their 
jobs and become public wards, because there are some other 
occupations which are far more dangerous than agriculture, 
and because farm accidents happen individually and do not 
result in some great catastrophe, we are liable to conclude er- 
roneously that accidents contribute very little to the ill health 
of farm people. As a matter of fact, the occupation of farm- 
ing stands about midway in the list of occupational accidents.! 
Many of the occupations included in the list are professions, 
the occupational conduct of which has practically nothing to 
do with the accidents which happen to the men engaged in 
them. If we compare the rural worker with other manual 
workers, we find that he ranks comparatively low in accidents. 


‘United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, p. 29, 
March, 1915. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 343 


A quarry or concrete worker stands ten times as great a chance, 
as the farmer, of being injured while at work. A carpenter 
or mason stands five chances to the farmer’s one. Frederick 
L. Hoffman, of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, 
in a study of the State of New York, 1914-1915, shows that 
farm labor, as to dangerous occupations, stands thirty-second 
in a list of thirty-four occupations. In Massachusetts, how- 
ever, farm labor stands nineteenth in a list of forty-two. These 
two bodies of statistics are based upon “Incurred Losses per 
$1,000 of earned payrolls,’ and so are not as good indices as 
straight mortality or morbidity rates. The same authority 
gives the fatal accidents for all occupations in 1916. In a list 
of twenty-one industries, agricultural pursuits stand twentieth. 
The agricultural pursuits rate was only .35 per 1,000 employed, 
or one person out of 3,500 employed.* 

If it be true that the problem of fatal accidents is not as 
prevalent in agriculture as in other manual pursuits, it is 
probably just as true that minor injuries are more prevalent. 
Farmers work so universally in a hand-machine-animal power 
arrangement, that they are very likely to suffer injury from 
small wounds, scratches, bruises, sprains, blisters, and even 
bites from animals. They are exposed to the severity of 
weather under such uncontrolled conditions that they are 
likely to suffer from heat prostration, sun-stroke, and frost 
bite. Farm women are liable to suffer burns, scratches, and 
wounds from hand tools. Every one of these things causes 
misery, and may result in complications which are serious. 
Farm people need to know means and methods of first aid, 
because their injuries are many, and often too slight to warrant 
calling for medical assistance. 


MENTAL HEALTH ON THE FARM 


Statistical Facts on Rural Mental Health and Disease. —lIt 
was seen from the War Department’s statistics for drafted men, 
that mental deficiency, hysteria, and epilepsy were all more 


*The information just given is from charts furnished by the Statistical 
Department of the Prudential Insurance Company of America. 


344 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


prevalent defects among rural than among urban recruits. On 
the other hand, the special report of the “Insane and Feeble- 
minded in Institutions” in the United States, shows the rural 
rate to be lower than the urban. Since the statistics vary so 
widely between the different sections of the nation, and since 
the percentage of rural population is so much greater in some 
sections than in others, it is practically impossible to draw any 
sure conclusion from the census statistics. 

The following table gives the facts in detail: 

The Interpretation and Exposition of the Facts on Rural 
Mental HealthThese data would seem to indicate a much 
higher rate of insanity in urban than in rural districts. In all 
but six states, there were a greater number of commitments 
per 100,000 inhabitants from the cities than from the country. 
In twenty states, the urban rate was more than twice as high 
as the rural rate. In six states, it was three times as high. 
That we cannot draw sure conclusions about the comparative 
health of rural and urban folk is apparent to any one who 
knows how reticent rural people are about admitting members 
of their families to any type of public institution. Further- 
more, such striking differences in rates as the table above 
shows, to exist between states of the same geographic area, 
clearly indicate that the state laws and their administration 
have much to do with the number of persons committed to 
the hospitals for the insane. 


COMMUNITY HEALTH CONTROL AND PROMOTION 


Promotion of Health through the Schools——Health train- 
ing should be a part of our common education. The common 
school is a proper place to begin such training. Such training 
can be by means of classroom teaching, physical training, 
health supervision of children and teachers, health inspection 
and examination, corrective gymnastics, and by using the 
school plant and whole school program as a demonstration of 
correct living. The school can be used by health officials as a 
clinic, and illustrated and other popular educational lectures 
can be given at the school house, The school records can be 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 


349 


TaBLE 54.—INSANE ADMITTED TO LOSPITALS PER 100,000 PoruLATIon! 




















District and State Urban Rural Urban 
Rate Rate Excess 
New England: 
IVE AINE Serre OR Che eee Oh Peek Pei ee oe es 74.7 61.2 13.5 
NEW LEAN PSMIPGe en se atc rc ane tien aa) ie co 73.3 15.2 1.9 
Py SUITOR eeiee Sen eeer sett y ue ere MCN ey a | 68.1 80.2 1271 
IMASSACHUISOLiG (Huey ote ee eee kt el iy 122.4 118;2 4.2 
TUN OUOPLSIANIO. ats tol as Looe TREE 84.2 250.6 66.4 
EOOTMGCLISILY 1 euetsi. Le ee tT NE Aa hg a ne" 42.9 1532 58.3 
Middle Atlantic: 
INGWeXMOL er, fee te fats ees oe eee et Uns 101.5 61.8 38.7 
ING Wal CESOV cre ceria et ean Cee Ai dy 65.9 55.2 10.7 
PONS Vanna Ore ries aR ee Tid hy €1i5 33.2 38.3 
East North Central: 
ONT ak ser) pens Dias A a RO IR ai cA ana epee ea 85.6 46.0 39.6 
PTANA Pee eae aes a te ae a Rt pea) 56.0 37.8 18.2 
HINGIS MALE ne a eee ate LS ALGO k Ae) 82.1 48.4 33.3 
DIICIIGAI eM ere mace els Set a aA /a i ead 80.5 58.7 21.8 
BVMASGOVISETE RETR MET ed mesa sc MeN Lass g tau ri 128.2 85rd 
West North Central: 
NEWER AOS AL 6 EAR SUID ME A GD gk aoe 66.1 66.8 4.7 
i LOR YD yon 8 cael Ne Ae CIO ae ie UO UBER IS BO Neyo! A 89.8 54.8 35.0 
ARIS SOW ooo ORES odie LR MANOEL ae ah MnP ie 82.4 58.1 24.3 
POCENEL DAR OLA timer casi ial Vey eanaey Bie hea: 50.6 33.9 16.7 
IOUT LIK OUT ere et iy he Pcs ene ae ene ae Uh Slo Sou) 5.3 
BNEDUASK AL res tiats tet tes GSE ARNE) aN Pe Wik 2 36.5 33.5 3.3 
TCH SHA MRTED MARE SEC Mf gna touch Wed NW VW dingy | Yen 38.8 48.3 
South Atlantic: 
IOLA WATOTAT Pee ee ee Pee ye ieee Teas 85.5 40.9 44.6 
1G Bang ANG hen gy a LL oR ele ME ee Ped 130.5 55.4 65.1 
PIISLYICIROM COLUMN UIG aor tite) Goce | ene 14707 
WArpinitimrr ame Snir she ieene tn hoa) ee eat iee 88.6 49.5 39.1 
EOS OT PST VERE IME LU Bly ASO Succi tenn SONS Pin AU 68 .6 31,2 37.6 
INGE CIEUATOLT Aye Nae reo Lk eke hay Gee, 59.7 20.6 39.1 
POUL GALOUINA UIA Oe), orf ee ek thine Ld tiGet 2420 89.1 
I OLIGR mover. We POs Se cla ee bn eo Ae rales 48.4 21.0 27.4 
East South Central: 
VCP CUCK Vie che erste one al AA nr Te eA TED EMEA IAN 85.9 38 .4 47.5 
PDENNCSSER See rire y tlhe Lie hee 6 Nitin Bhd ey Meike Ma 61.2 30.0 = 1 
CROOTM UNE R ae: Vt als a te eke Ey, Mee 76.3 33.8 42.5 
BLOT VALINE Mier ete ree ee Om See ur, PUR 9g Re a A Ok) 61.3 31:5 29.8 
UTES Oa a Ie 2 | i eit a Eng so) RP 40.5 32.6 7.9 
West South Central: 
FNRI TEYSTOTS Wyte BGR at tan eID ERE A pe aune en 13.3 16.8 2.5 
MOUISTATIA Were? En GN, renahan. Ceca na amr suaneSEIEN | | 52.8 15.0 37.8 
TRY A GY eh ae Geka RET Toes Rea UR eee a LS 52.98 40.3 12.5 
TASS) 0 CMs SAA, NR CURL A TF a LA GR 67.9 24.8 40.1 








*Towns of 2,500 and fewer inhabitants are considered rural. 


346 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Taste 54.—INsSANE ApMmiTTED to Hosprrats PER 100,000 PopuLaTion! 
(Continued) 


Urban Rural Urban 


Pe ache ; Rate Rate Excess 
District and State (Continued) (Con- (Con- (Con- 


tinued) | tinwed) | tenued) 


Mountain: 
WIGNEATIA Sioa eele cies he tate aitece tc oan tinea es 12Za.7 42.0 81.7 
daha en ee a Resistance ne 81.5 45.4 36.1 
Wivoring es. ea ett a Len eres ene Vs 25.5 30.2 4.7 
Colorado ea Seika eee ee ey tree ete ae 121.8 33.5 88.3 
New MeKIGO fc UR eae ik ew) tieveal ee Dc jek 62.3 19.6 52.7 
Nev Eda Sera b leer ecu hore te memeianng ato: 157.1 51.4 55.50 
Utab Vs blots ee eet arate eee a eet ae ade 39.3 14.0 25.3 
VATIZOTIS » CoP Rent eet wee a HA ecg ne ee 126.5 35.4 91.1 

Pacific: 
Washington ce temas. on ki ceG ics ae ha lanes 96.9 47.2 49.5 
OPELOD SE ee cay eile a slobaLie See cent 101.9 58.5 43.4 
Coliforniat: aetna nie, AUG Vcr nl hs Gini sae ae 69.2 37.8 31.4 


made to show the chronological history of every child that 
passes through it.? 

Before many of the things just mentioned will be done, 
an enlarged vision of the place of constructive health education 
will have to be gained. School buildings, curricula, staffs, and 
programs will have to be constructed on the basis of including 
health as one of the major objects of education. Since the 
National Education Association has named health training as 
one of the basic elements in common-school education, we may 
expect to see rapid progress made toward the goals which have 
just been described. 

The Hospital—One of the greatest drawbacks to rural 
health is the lack of medical agencies in rural districts. Hos- 
pitals, clinics, and dispensaries are, and must practically all be 
located in towns and cities. Simple clinics can be held at the 
rural school, particularly if it is a consolidated school. But 
dispensaries need more consistent and constant direction than 
can be furnished by the school, the chief task of which is 


"Towns of 2,500 and fewer inhabitants are considered rural. 
*“Fealth for School Children,” School Health Studies No. 1, Department of 
the Interior, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C., 1923. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL HEALTH 347 


something else. Hospitals are institutions, and must be staffed 
and operated by experts. The only feasible location for them 
is in cities or towns where controlled heat, light, water, and 
sewage can be had constantly. There is no reason why hos- 
pital services may not be available for all country people, 
however, if the correct method of establishing and supporting 
them prevails. 

The best method by which to furnish hospital, clinic, and 
dispensary services to rural persons is by way of hospitals sup- 
ported by tax monies. Community, township, county, or 
district hospitals financed by bonds, voted by the people 
themselves, have several advantages. The bond campaign is of 
great educational value. The hospital belongs to the people, 
and will be used to a greater extent by them. The public re- 
port of the hospital further educates the people to its value 
and use. 

The most thoroughgoing study yet made of rural hospitals 
has appeared since this manuscript was prepared. Probably 
the most concise summary that can be presented is to quote 
the concluding paragraph of that study. 


The movement for the establishment of rural hospitals is on. 
Many methods are available. There are no legal impediments. 
New state laws are being enacted opening new ways. Any com- 
munity may have a hospital, if it really wants it. Farmers are 
realizing the value of hospitals and are recognizing the handicap 
which the absence of hospitals and doctors places upon farming 
communities. Health and medical officers are increasingly taking 
notice of the health problem presented by the 50,000,000 people 
living in rural territory. Far-seeing leaders of the medical profes- 
sion not only deplore the lack of doctors and hospitals in rural 
communities, but are actually attacking the problem. With the 
general establishment of rural hospitals, together with the resultant 
aid to the return of rural doctors, the health and social phases of 
equality of agriculture with other industries will be nearer ac- 
complishment.! 

Whole Time County Health Officers—Better than either 
clinics, dispensaries, or hospitals is the presence of one or more 


*Nason, W. C., “Rural Hospitals,” Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1485, United 
States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., March, 1926. 


348 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


public health agents, whose duty it is to promote health ideas. 
Such officers may be school, community, or county health 
nurses or county doctors, who do not conduct private practice, 
but give all their time to public health. Thirty states have 
one or more such officials... In Alabama, Georgia, North 
Carolina, and Ohio, the county health officer, or the district 
health commissioner, covers a large portion of the rural areas 
of these states. These officials conduct school clinics and 
dispensaries, promote hospitalization, and are constant agents 
of health education, as well as health police. When the rural 
community comes to see itself as an entity, and to see health 
as a part of its community standard of living, such practices, 
facilities, and agencies will become universal. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Bulletins of United States Health Service, Washington, D. C. 

Ocpen, H. N., Rural Hygiene, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1920. 

Harris, H. F., Health on The Farm, Sturgis and Walton Company, New 
York, 1911. 

Woop, T. D., Health Essentials for Rural School Children. 

Nason, W. C., Rural Hospitals, United States Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C., 1926. 


*“Whole Time County Health Officers,” Reprint No. 837, from the Public 
Health Report, 1923, Treasury Department, Washington, D. C. 


CHAPTER XVI 
THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 
THE ROLE OF RECREATION IN LIFE 


The Difference between Amusement, Play, and Recreation. 
—QOne of the important discoveries of this generation is the 
value and importance of play in life. We have discovered 
that the desire to play is not confined to children, that its 
values are not confined to childhood, and that any individual 
or community that would insure himself or itself an abundant 
or even a normal life must provide for the natural and con- 
structive play. We have passed the day, in our understanding 
of individual emotions and social structure, when we think of 
play as mere amusement, or of recreation as consisting solely 
of either play or amusement. 

Amusement is anything that pleases. It is always one ele- 
ment in play, but it may be ludicrousness or lust or dissipation. 
A person falling, because of having slipped on a banana peel, 
may, for the second, be amusing, but such an incident does 
not constitute play or recreation for either the actor or 
the observer. One might go through life highly amused, and 
yet never have experienced anything more of play than the 
emotional exhilaration which comes with having the stage 
turned upside-down a thousand times. Play is fun, but not 
necessarily funny. It may be, in fact, very serious. 

Play is something that pleases, plus an end or a goal to be 
attained. If it is a game, the goal is consciously set. If it is 
not a game, the goal is there just the same in the tonic to life, 
the joy of experience, and the development of personality. 
Play is a part of life. It is as universal as life itself. It is 
so characteristic of men and lower animals, that it is regarded 
by many as instinctive. It is as universal as human action. 
All action, however, is not play. Action that is restrained or 

349 


350 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


disciplined by ends other than the development of the person- 
ality of the one who acts must be described as work. ‘That 
which is sufficiently dynamic as to constitute freedom of 
action and development is play, and such freedom is an abso- 
lute essential to the development of personality. As Joseph 
Lee, President of the Playground and Recreation Association 
of America says, “it is nature’s course of study.” Or as Herbert 
S. Jennings, Professor of Biology in Johns Hopkins University, 
in discussing the possible detriment of forcing certain activities 
upon children before their powers are developed to handle 
these activities, says: “There is one method of the exercise 
of the powers that is almost free from these dangers, and 
that is what we call play.” 

Recreation uses both the joy of amusement and the con- 
structive development of play, but goes beyond both in that 
it consciously re-creates what has been torn down, or con- 
sclously creates or constructs something new in life. The 
first essential in recreation is relaxation, or freedom from that 
which tears down—from work, worry, or monotony. ‘The 
second essential is that it actually be carried forward by some 
activity. The impulse to this going forward is furnished by the 
zest that comes with amusement and play. The third essential 
is, that it reconstruct, re-create, or construct and create the 
desirable ends which it purposes. Relaxation or release from 
monotony or routine, zest, and creation are then the essentials 
of real recreation. , 

In discussing whether rural folk need recreation, we need 
only ask whether they ever need release from monotony; 
whether they need the jest which comes with play; and 
whether they need woven into their lives the creative process 
which comes as a product of freedom and zest. Certainly, 
if these are demonstrated as worth-while factors in life gen- 
erally, they are the birthright of the boys and girls, and men 
and women, of the open country. 

The Physical, Mental, Social, and Moral Aspects of Play.— 
Play is not only nature’s preventive medicine, but is a part 
of nature’s method of developing a normal adult. A child, if 
given adequate play environment and play opportunity, will 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 351 


develop its muscles and nerves and its neuro-muscular co- 
ordinations as rapidly as growth makes them available for 
development. No work task on earth can furnish this op- 
portunity and environment, for work is not planned to develop 
the individual who participates in it, but rather is planned 
for ends that lie outside the immediate life of the individual. 
The notion that rural children are being offered these op- 
portunities through their daily labors of doing chores is a sad 
misconception. The idea, that they will obtain the full bene- 
fits of play, because they are permitted to be in the open air 
and are given freedom for exercise, fails to take cognizance 
of the fact that normal growth and development demand 
nurture and cultivation of balanced activities, as well as 
a balanced food diet. What is true of the growth and develop- 
ment of the child is just as true of the daily routine of the 
adult man and woman on the farm. Farm work, varied as 
it is, does not furnish a sufficiently diversified set of activities 
to guarantee a balanced and healthful functioning of the 
muscles, nerves, and vital organs of the body. 

The physical values of play are quite well known now, 
although there is much yet to discover in this field. It is known 
that: (1) Play is a tonic, in that it arouses the emotions and 
thus reacts on the nerves, muscles, and vital organs of the 
body. (2) It develops the body symmetrically, because all 
parts of the body are being used properly and in balance, 
whereas much work specializes only a few muscles. (3) It 
quickens the senses, seeing, hearing, etc., and this quickened 
use of the senses becomes a part of one’s habits all through 
life. (4) It develops coordinations, rhythm, and grace, as 
contrasted with the awkwardness and clumsiness so often 
characteristic of the rural person. 

The mental values of play are even more pronounced than 
the physical values, and probably more needed by country 
folk. It is not that country folk are less capable mentally, 
that their work is less stimulating than that of the city, or 
that they do not have opportunity to use so-called mental 
activity. As a matter of fact, all of these possibilities are 
greater in the work life of country people than among the 


352 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


manual laborers in city occupations. It is, rather, that the ad- 
ditional opportunities which come with stimuli from outside 
the work routine are far greater in the city than in the country. 
For this reason, country folk, especially country children dur- 
ing the period of growth and development, should have the 
opportunity to inculcate into their personalities those habits 
which are induced and established by means of play. 

The mental values arising out of play are: (1) the develop- 
ment of alertness, initiative, and quick decision; (2) the de- 
velopment of enthusiasm, joy, and optimism; (3) the develop- 
ment of precision, courage, and skill, and thus a trust in one’s 
own capacity. All of these are values, which, if built into a 
child, will take him far in life, and many of them are not 
furnished by any other activity of childhood except through 
play. | 

The social values of play rank above all its physical and 
mental values. These the rural person needs above all others, 
for it is in social experience that the country is lacking. Play 
is almost universally a social project, though, of course, not 
solely so. Group action is more possible and more necessary 
among rural people today than ever before. Anything, 
therefore, which develops with the technique of cooperative, 
community, or group action is bound to have deep values in 
rural life. The social values of play are: (1) it develops com- 
munity interest; (2) it develops cooperative technique, 
through team play, and in organizing and promoting play; 
(3) it develops leadership; (4) it develops community loyalty 
back of community teams; (5) it develops capacity to associ- 
ate, through bringing people in enlivened contact with each 
other and in groups. 

The moral values of play are sufficiently well recognized 
today, that churches and other religious agencies include play 
in their regular regimen of activities. They no longer do it, as 
was once the case, merely to attract and attach people to their 
religious activities and programs. They do it, because they 
recognize that the best way to teach ethics and morality is to 
inculeate them into the habits and attitudes of people. They 
cannot do it by directing the work of people, for the work 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 353 


hours are beyond their control, and they cannot do it merely 
by precept and preaching. They therefore do it by directing 
their play activities. The moral values of play are: (1) it 
develops self-control, self-confidence, presence of mind, deter- 
mination, and courage, all of which are the very fibers of 
personal morals; (2) it develops recognition of the rights of 
others, altruism, fairness, and even self-sacrifice, all of which 
are the heart of social ethics; (3) it develops enthusiasm, 
aspiration, zest, and joy, which are no small part of religion 
itself. 


THE NEED OF PLAY AND RECREATION 
IN 
RURAL LIFE 


To Guarantee Physical Development and Fitness.—The con- 
viction, on the part of many rural parents, that play is noth- 
ing more than a substitute for exercise and work has robbed 
hundreds of thousands of rural children of the experiences 
and values discussed in the preceding section of this chapter. 
“All work and no play” not only “makes Jack a dull boy,” 
but robs him of the opportunity to develop into complete 
physical manhood. It was discovered in the army camps, not 
only that farm-reared young men were slower to respond to 
the stimuli of play, but that they reached the stage of fatigue 
more quickly than city-reared young men in those forms of 
activity requiring the use of the whole body. In recent years, 
the husky farm boy no longer excels the play-trained city boy 
in college athletics. Farm boys and girls do not develop either 
symmetrical bodies or well-coordinated muscles and nerves. 
Farm work develops the heavy or major muscles to the neglect 
of the finer muscles. It is out of the asymmetry of bodily 
function that ill health develops. 

In the days of the pioneer, when the farmer was half hunter 
and half farmer, his senses were quickened by his experiences 
in the woods and along the streams. Now that farm life 
has become more sedentary, more mechanical, and more a 
matter of repeated operations, the senses of the farmer are not 


354 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


trained as they used to be. In city life, one’s occupation may 
be far more mechanical, routine, and stable than on the 
farm. But once outside the factory door, all these senses 
must be alive to the teeming, changing, stimulating environ- 
ment, both physical and social, of city life. Leisure hours in 
the city are filled far more with challenging stimuli to thought 
and action than are work hours. The opposite is the case 
in rural life. In city life, leisure time is organized to offer 
the very corrections necessary to balance up the routine 
physical activities of the work hours. In country life, the 
same thing should be done. The method of doing it is through 
organized recreation. 

To Develop Mental Growth.—The city child is almost uni- 
versally more precocious than the rural child. This may be 
good, or it may be bad. The fact that it may be good is 
sufficient to warrant its consideration. The lack of diversified 
association and diversified stimulation make the country child 
often seem stupid. He may have developed health, vigor, and 
abundance of energy, but it is in the opportunities and means 
of release of energy that thinking consists. His means of 
release are not sufficient in childhood, and become quickly 
habituated in adult life. Modern psychological studies indi- 
cate that there is nothing in child life so fraught with danger 
for blighting normal living as the repression of natural emo- 
tions. Surely there is no greater abnormality in life than the 
person who never learned to play. Running with a dog, riding 
a stick horse, climbing a tree, or wandering over the fields are 
all fine, but to have no opportunities for stimulation other 
than this type of thing soon leaves the rural child short on 
human experience, and thus short on stimuli to thinking. 

The emotions are a part of the thinking process. They 
furnish chiefly the motive or zest to think. Play stimulates 
and enlivens the emotions, introduces spontaneity and pleas- 
urable experiences into life, sets the mind to all kinds of 
aspirational imaginations, and thus creates experiences in and 
of itself. These things the rural child needs, in order that he 
may capitalize into thinking the potential energies that sun- 
shine, open air, and freedom have developed in his nerve 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 399 


cells. Rural people are too often either emotionally stolid and 
stagnant, or emotionally morose and even sordid. This may 
be preferable to being an emotional jellyfish, as is the case 
with some city people, but it is not thereby either necessary 
or desirable. The introduction of diversified and directed play 
would rectify these shortcomings. 

City-reared young men in the army camps excelled country- 
reared young men in activities which demanded mental alert- 
ness. The country boy often excels in college studies, not 
because of his quickness in thinking, but because of his dog- 
gedness in work. The adult farmer is suspicious of the other 
man, often only because he does not trust his own capacity 
to cope with an outsider in alertness of thinking. Play and 
games develop these very attitudes which he lacks—alert- 
ness, initiative, precision, and trust in one’s self. It would 
add to the experience of the rural person those very things 
of which his isolation and independence of life have robbed 
him. 

To Develop Social, Cooperative, or Group Technique.— 
People have always been drawn into groups, because of their 
desire for those emotional satisfactions which come only from 
associations with other persons. Personality is chiefly built 
out of social contacts, and rural people have always been 
short on social contacts. This is the reason why they find it 
difficult to cooperate in economic enterprise; why their imag- 
ination is feeble; why their judgments are often narrow; and 
why bitter hostilities so often develop in rural communities. 
Play, especially group play and team play, is the best anti- 
dote to these shortcomings. Agriculture is a family industry, 
and will probably always have to be carried on in relative 
isolation. Farm work, for the most part, must be carried on 
by means of no larger group than the single family. It is, 
therefore, only in the marketing function, the institutional 
life outside the family, and during leisure time that the 
broader and more cosmopolitan experiences can be had. Com- 
munity play and recreation offers one of these opportunities. 

Furthermore, play draws people together, in that it sets 
up common ends to be gained. Differences of temperament 


356 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


and opinion are lost in a common consciousness and common 
techniques of accomplishment. This is not only valuable in 
itself, but carries over into other activities of life. Dr. Warren 
H. Wilson quotes Reverend C. O. Gill, at one time captain 
of the Yale football team, and one who has had long experi- 
ence working among rural people, as saying: 


The reason why farmers cannot cooperate is in the fact that they 
did not play when they were boys. They never learned team work. 


TABLE 55.—SUMMARY OF RECREATION CHoICES OF COUNTRY AND VILLAGE 


Boys 
Recreation Country] Village 
SWHNIMIN Gy eres eet Ey iris eA nee Ae en ete a cee a 267 325 
FAUT PIN Eee aes ee de ARN ae Aa GR ate Pa Te Ae eae Re ee 226 219 
Baseballn, Geo ie we ial oleae id re ea eran ee Ree 267 361 
FROIN AS ER Rai ae AIS, Ma A aa eg ORS 190 227 
Basket bali yh le sa ane awake eke ieee al ee eee Mahe ha eRn ee 167 210 
INF eV EST Og MPAs aa ae ee Ls IW 1A] Peal ea Toke age iy 164 193 
Bootes Fact awe stalin sein tele eles he Ede nad sole eee ou ae eee 152 216 
PPENTIIS Wale ulernte Feit sary ot dehahid Baty alee BRUT Lae eth ae en aoa 66 122 
PATI OEICS Ys 658! MAD 5 ss Lay Sell esi FS os opel ANE eee RM a 56 87 
A DTLOIN Gos) a eg eee Cee Wid PREP tata Ae lg dae asd RUMI LR a oe 45 75 
ELOPSeDACE Tide T ee dati d OE" eth AL ie Balle) en euRnES RD, 9 60 57 
PAD IN ORT UAC UNS mone Bilal aa He AA aang CRA eer 37 52 
UIT AMS MUON ne cay a cee. CN san ene ene Men Pane ae 29 81 
BVECVIGS yee c ine Us rot oe 1c etry ast ae eA ie ick tne em aN 25 34 
rele DAT ed MMe by Ba MME MRI URS MTS cohen id entice a Raley so 24 33 
AGC ahs CRN Ot Ate ERG One SONA ARAL Nes wich gy TUE eyra ats 22 24 
DVEUSIC UL ten sie Gist Gress a aie acy yas Sone eee RTE aes tee 19 37 
AVEO GOTIME ini es decree Ski a \oedat war bis te 1c and Me, LA Re Pe 16 25 
Bicycle vicina yates cae Gli Usa Ne ies ae 11 8 
CUERVO MOO Metre dst Gk Lic hates is cle eee eo annem agers 9 4 
IROWine ee ih ee ates ccc a fu (Lay OY a ees Reet eac ge eee 9 9 
NeYeye helen | Oh aur yu He, AOL OR Sep ROMEO LAIUR EM AL at atc ya! 8 16 
TOLL RAP ee ie ee tS hse a sinls & ahd Cette RR a ier 8 9 
Drawn ee eer gaat Cite ated tales Jis'sle ae nee iste ae aE eee 6 4 
RTA ea MAT LARE Dr ROR Ay OSEAN POU ARNON SAMAR Pm ean ae he eC Na aM 5 3 
POrUles ce a ean atte Like. ye A'isks, say ge cies AER ene eee tem 5 16 
Wrestling rman ula tantcs cesta’. CFie bers 4 aise ores rie Ree 5 3 
Wolleyviball yo Mek dee et Mek Ce cs hn Ue eae 6 11 
Balter. ema a) Lat ans leur ste tke oo CL eae 4 14 
Cards tis Dra ne Ae SNC, | LETC ae 4 10 
Pienieg's ih (eR RE RM cette te cit ihn ick ul Pat aid te RR 3 + 
CRYIN WORK . tthe REET Ghee tons tiie cel Ot ian tae 3 5 
Bands (301s ig top memento dee cece. hei Boe) Ae Ie 2 a 2 2 
COGUEES ice SRE BIO arU eek ala Ue a alee eee 2 4 
SCO UES oy i MER Meee AG rN Ga tasore C0) ak OS ae eee 3 7 








THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 307 


TABLE 56.—SUMMARY OF RECREATION CHOICES OF COUNTRY AND VILLAGE GIRLS 





Recreation Country] Village 
Tensile pie ete ety ate sale v tes ad Bais alan da ae ieee 520 651 
BoA TO LOST oul e ciate ca tela gin Scie’ s eA Ge see tech LR Veet 264 398 
PERERA LRN Tee ee CA TENS fe rs ake heh R eee Oe raat. 194 232 
STE MnO REM Cate Sig nisie e Wek tial oes e Shy odes WS CIE AS. vista os Se 192 157 
PARDCLIY Dare en RN SAr ULM v uturer oe tut 2) rely 4 Gray 0 Wee Abed dy sas ae: 199 314 
CTS ete sre Meter t at A fae Bee ale hey Mil'oe cathe oe ad 119 244 
a ee LG Se ar Via e ies wel sae Hap aes aca hh Oe 113 247 
Tee Se. eee a Gotan en ake Pew ES us Oe 90 94 
EEL EME TI MeN, tid ero Nemes Sea RE SE ce SL URES ste oo. 4 85 101 
WV Liane yea yo it fet Lata. utet. Gan eee tote a Vitek Mew ues ea lcl! a ss 74 89 
EPR fools pyhle A UNG pe eee vel aN Se tg A as anata ee 61 62 
DAU SiC rates reser ere iten os er ea ee t ieee ALD ie has ey 65 84 
DLC VACS ee Caen eet Fy Rae Niseiie oan ARLEN. ROR TET eh le ah. Sew Oe 51 91 
Bet oo ATEN No Lg oe 8 hl UE Nad le Sook ol ie eG OM Dire Ds 45 54 
PE UAiy wens: PER ahha. sn Me ONS gus crea, Were aye ae 43 74 
MEE LICE Matra taials Cr aes hates Ud A LA RGN A ae a RANE CEE S's athe: 3 43 27 
arty d 1S OR Le Prati cra. ts ree Cat eh ce is Shas 35 57 
ecawe aaa iat ble SARIS LSPA un MU Ne LR Ne 34 28 
COE OGT DOLLY Soret ite: tials cha etek, woe tea, v aye eee Phe daa 4 37 15 
SGT Oe MEO React a aN A Re Ge Oe eat cl, 37 22 
PTEEOMALI NID ee Rene tee AY ieee tS. Sieh te ae Netra yee Aly | 18 28 
Oar ey amit te Perea IRR Atay tiuaee del SA le BUR eA 1) 17 7 
TENE eth V ge ee TR, CU De IP oii ab eM Ur an tl ea a 16 27 
SIGE ert ee gy cle ea eer tatty OF ay ate stata aay atk gt sel Caer NC a eed ia 14 14 
COLT Oes e ee peere rete ces, elke ee Re ot eesttay di et beta SW SUNS WE goat 13 14 
SLE EANREES 2) 2a We LU Bag sy la ae OE AIL eon BUI UTS gM ta 12 13 
COOKIN Per i ee cpt he Oates ee Ltee cate Vali aw se nes wee Reg ne 12 13 
Pa OIA Ne Ue Mela ith Chain staan Mpeg 8 SRI MU NC 12 13 
acim eL A ee ate Sap cr fee eae ve oe thet cca de ther alehe yank 11 4 
PTO PELL Se MEE Bo SIR IE EE ASS RI OL GAL On a Sa Eo OB aL 11 6 
AGUS WVOLE PE RCKIW ecru MN adil. eel ange STctale Le L tb hee od Rosanne a A 10 10 
NPA EV AVE cot ATEN ITER SO) ECO RS BHO eR A Me RATE AIP Sa aia On ARR OL 9 4 
LL OrOGIiep eres cteeres Paha Tyclan Wap daha et Neetu c giehe 4 Olek 9 1 
RIC S EME rd Bera de POSTE PAE Le ot es. Aral aetna hoa’: 8 21 
TRIG Tr war Mee, Maer Ne eer acre am alae AR OWR GE eke 8 5 
CREAM re Ne OG baa oN bee I es Al ca a Oa Onde Up SRL fi 4 
EDT CV Ole rr Cenc ys ki he Mrs Mae mealy ed Ae eel Mee am aad ease A SMM Ay 6 21 
UCN) Oat Bee eet Shes AA IRA OP DURA, OO HUA ry CHT, CIA Hg Aa, 6 9 
TERING Vala VOL or ete te trek, US RN MAE hn os Ba Ey AEGAN alt ety: 5 6 12 


They cannot yield to one another, or surrender themselves to a 
common purpose.t 


Rural people have always played, of course. All men and 
animals play in one way or another. Rural sports, however, 


*Witson, Warren H., Evolution of The country Community, p. 195, 


308 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


like rural economic enterprise have been individualistic. The 
type of play most needed in rural districts is that which de- 
mands and teaches cooperative or team play. If adult farmers 
were as loyal to, and enthusiastic over, the success of their 
community programs, and the well-being of their community 
life, as school and college students are over the success of 
their athletic teams, there would be a great gain in many 
things that demand group action and See loyalty in rural 
community life. 

A study of play choices, or preferences for various types 
of play, recently made by the Institute of Social and Religious 
Research, 1s revealing in many ways. It shows that rural 
young people prefer play that demands association and team 
work, even more than city young people do. The choices are 
combinations of those things which are well known but lack- 
ing in the environment of the child, give opportunity for asso- 
ciation with other children, and have been participated in to 
some extent by the children. Tables 55 and 56 give the rank- 
ing of choices. Table 57 shows the desire on the part of rural 
boys for team games and associated recreation.* 

A study of play choices or preferences for various kinds 
of play, recently made by the Institute of Social and Religious 
Research, reveals the fact that rural boys desire sports which 
demand team play even more than do city boys. The study 
covered the choice of 3,040 village boys, and 2,119 country 
boys. The following table is constructed from the data dis- 
covered by this study: 

In the average American open-country community, it is 
the very sports which rural youths prefer, which are handi- 
capped by lack of members, recreational facilities, and play 
supervision. Those types which they place fairly well down 
the list, viz., individualized sports, are the ones which are 
forced upon them if they are to play at all. 

We can do no better in concluding this section than to quote 
from Lawrence S. Hill, in a paper read before the Physical 


1Tnformation furnished by Institute of Social and Religious Research, New 
York City. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 309 


TABLE 57.—PLAy CHOICES 





If Country 
Boys’ Choice Actual — 
Type of Recreation . Yielded Country . 
Village Those of Boys’ 
Village Choice 
Boys ! 
RO Nhe da ARNE ne oO RS 361 253 267 
eRrERTELLU aN comet care lee a2 ie esta os Monee 216 Lb] 152 
BIO toe | ett ha tie pelts Sn etOn D2 35 37 
TEAR E INA RS a gee ie RTS ADE th 7 24 16 22 
Vell ee amet cei tard cote eters. 11 8 6 


_!There were almost seven-tenths as many country boys’ choices as there were village boys’ 
choices. Column three is what the country boys’ choices would be, if they just represented those 
of the city boys. 


Education Department of the National Education Associa- 
tion, at Pittsburgh, in 1918. 


To sum up these needs we may say that the rural child requires 
a special type of activity. It is useless to preach morality, self- 
control, recognition of the rights of others, altruism, self-confidence, 
determination, loyalty, cooperation, courage, skill, and a host of 
other attributes, which the individual should acquire in school, if 
mere preaching is all that is attempted. It is necessary to give the 
individual opportunity to learn these valuable lessons for himself, 
and this he can do through normal directed activity better than 
he can in any other way. Children need activities intended to 
promote health and body, as well as moral discipline; activities for 
the health and happiness of all boys and girls at the same time as 
the mental and moral training. They need to realize the obliga- 
tions to the society in which they live, and to have a readiness of 
spirit and body to meet those obligations in daily life. They need 
to be made conscious of the fact that it is not for themselves alone 
that they sing patriotic songs, perform daily drills, play games, 
and undergo health examinations, but for themselves as happier, 
healthier, more efficient members of the community in which they 
live.? 


* Quoted from Pueran, J., Readings in Rural Sociology, pp. 233-234. 


360 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


THE DIFFICULTY OF GETTING RECREATION INTO RURAL LIFE 


Rural Attitudes That Are Adverse to Recreation.—One of 
the difficulties, if indeed not the chief difficulty, of establishing 
adequate play opportunities in the open country has been the 
adverse attitudes to play prevalent in the minds of many rural 
people. Play has been looked upon as a time filler, or even 
a time killer, and thus in conflict with the almost universal 
work attitudes that pervade rural life. It has been looked upon 
as immoral and carnal and, therefore, contrary to religious 
ideals and activities. The dire economic struggle, through 
which practically all rural people have passed, developed a 
philosophy of life which regarded remunerative work alone 
as righteous. This attitude carried beyond the time and energy 
necessary for work to a condemnation of all pleasure seeking 
and merry making. I remember that, as a boy of about fifteen 
years of age, I actually felt pained, when my parents began 
considering retiring from their forty years of hard, pioneer, 
farm labors, and I felt that there was a distinct moral weak- 
ness in my younger sister, who insisted on reading in the 
afternoon following a strenuous forenoon at the family 
washing. I remember also that my father, who was a liberal 
thinker on religious matters, sternly rebuked me for standing 
one Sunday morning at the window, looking longingly at some 
neighbor boys skating on the ice pond in our own hog lot. 
Ministers have, in the past, been almost universally opposed 
to all kinds of sports. They not only condemned dancing and 
card playing, but all forms of organized recreation, and par- 
ticularly the “violation of the Sabbath,”’—the only leisure day 
that many a farm family had at its disposal. The tradition of 
the whole church, until recently, has been opposed to all 
amusement and recreation. The country church has been 
slower in giving up this tradition than has the city church. 

An inquiry into Rural Child Welfare made by the National 
Child Labor Committee, based upon conditions in West Vir- 
ginia, reports that again and again they heard such statements 
as: ‘We don’t believe in play.” The following quotations are 
from their report: 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 361 


One hale and hearty and fairly prosperous farmer averred, with 
the accent on the ego, “J never played when I was a boy.” Others 
not so hale and hearty or prosperous or quite so self-satisfied, made 
the same statement. There was Abe Fowler, for instance, who said 
“Boys don’t need no time to play. When they ain’t workin’ they 
oughtta be sleepin’, I reckon.” Another man said of his boys, 
“There’s plenty of work for ’em and no time for foolishness.” 
Another: “I’ve got a place for my boy to play—cutting sprouts and 
weeds—and wet days he e’n get wood.” 


Still other quotations from the same report are: 


“We never give ’em no time to play.” 

“Our children never bother with games.” 

“We don’t fool with any fool thing like that.” 

“T raised my children in the holler, and they didn’t l’arn any of 
that nonsense.” 

“T don’t like to see children put in time on games like dominoes. 
I’d as soon see ’em play cards.’ ? 


These may sound like extreme attitudes, and indeed they are, 
im some rural sections of the nation; but they are still prev- 
alent in other areas, and can be found scattered pretty well 
throughout the nation. They were at one time almost uni- 
versal in rural districts. 

The “work attitude,’ which makes all play negative and 
wasteful activity, and the “puritan attitude,’ which makes 
all pleasure sin, have slowed up the play movement in the 
country more than any other thing. Their lingering presence 
still keeps many rural communities negative, or at best pas- 
sive, on the problem of introducing organized recreation into 
rural life. 

The Lack of Sufficient Persons to Make Organized Play 
Feasible-—The writer has, at least twenty times, asked for a 
show of hands, in different rural sociology classes, of all 
country-reared boys who never played organized baseball, 
football, or basketball. In practically every case, a goodly 
majority testified that they never had. The explanations were 
always two: “We did not have enough boys at school to play 
these games;” and “We had no grounds and equipment.” 

1 Cuopper, E. N. Rural Child Welfare, pp. 147 and 149, Macmillan Co., 1922. 


362 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Before the advent of the automobile and the consolidated 
school, it was almost impossible to find a group of rural boys 
near enough the same age, who met together consistently 
enough to make playing one of these organized forms of sport 
possible. Furthermore, with the one-room school and its small 
play space, seldom more than an acre for building and all, and 
the ground often uneven, there was no place to play one of 
these games. I have seen dozens of rural schools built in the 
timber, with less than fifty square feet of cleared play space, 
or on a steep hillside, where it was dangerous even to play tag. 
No one thought of providing play space when the school 
eround was laid out, though the land was then cheap or even 
free. Now land is expensive, taxes are high, and play equip- 
ment expensive. The result is, that practically none of the 
rural children, except those provided with a modern consoli- 
dated school, have the opportunities of organized and directed 
play. 

The same lack of population, which has robbed children of 
the country of opportunities for organized play, has also 
robbed adults of many worth-while forms of recreation. Even 
picnics and social gatherings were difficult to arrange and make 
succeed, before the coming of the automobile and the tele- 
phone. Such gatherings were confined almost wholly to the 
national holidays. The telephone has made it easier to plan 
such occasions, and the automobile has made it easier to as- 
semble for such gatherings. Even now, the lack of play or 
recreation spaces, and the inertia of long generations of play- 
less life make the inauguration of play programs in rural dis- 
tricts difficult. 

In a survey of 1,014 farm families in North Carolina, it was 
found that no member, of 18 per cent of all families surveyed, 
had attended a community recreational event during the pre- 
ceding twelve months; and that only 17.1 per cent of all fam- 
ilies surveyed had attended as many as four recreational events 
during that time. In a survey of 426 farm families in South- 
east Missouri, the facts were found to be about the same. 
These areas are not typical of many others in the nation, but 
they are typical of thousands of rural communities, and serve 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 363 


to show that the handicaps and inertia of a few generations 
ago are by no means absent from large sections of rural society 
today. In many of the mountain regions and less sparsely 
settled sections of the nation, these effects are more pronounced 
than for the areas we have used as examples. 

A fact that is worth noting on the other side of the equation 
of few available people for recreational events in rural dis- 
tricts, is that among the groups who do meet together, there 
is a personal or neighborly relationship which is totally absent 
in the great commercial and impersonal recreational events 
of many cities. 


THE EVOLUTION OF PLAY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES 


The Play of Our Pioneers and Early Settlers —Play in rural 
life, in the sense of forms of activity, attitudes toward play, 
and the growth of play facilities, has developed concomitantly 
with other activities of rural life. It has been retarded, be- 
cause the attitudes and difficulties which we have discussed, 
have prevailed longer than they have in city life. But there 
is a vast difference between the play of our pioneer grand- 
fathers and that of the present day. The transition from 
pioneer, self-sufficient farming to commercial farming intro- 
duced into rural life monetary and material attitudes and 
standards, which for the past few generations have robbed 
rural society of many of the values which it once possessed, 
without substituting equally valuable recreative values. This 
sag in rural spiritual life, however, was not nearly so pro- 
nounced as were the results of the coming of the factory system 
in city life. It will pass, as it is passing in city life, with the 
spread of the play movement. 

Play among the pioneers grew out of the necessity for group 
work. There were certain tasks which the members of a single 
family could not perform alone. The neighbors gathered to 
assist, and the occasion, in addition to furnishing pleasurable 
association in work, was turned into a play time before it 
ended. Whole families were taken to the “barn raisings” and 
“log rollings,” because these occasions furnished food for their 


364 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


social hunger, and because it was not desirable or even safe 
to leave the mother and children at home alone. 

The “barn raising” was concluded with the ‘“‘barn dance.” 
The “log rolling” or “wood chopping” was turned into a bar- 
becue, and the “corn husking” was turned into a “bee.” Other 
occasions of this kind were the “sugar making,” “quiltings and 
rag sewings,” “round-ups,” and the like. In these occasions, all 
members of the family participated, sometimes all playing the 
same game, sometimes each age group playing the same game, 
sometimes each aged group playing to itself. 

Similar to those recreational occasions were the harvest 
and shelling gangs, which furnished arduous labor, but also 
afforded opportunities for associations and visitations. Often 
at the conclusion of the harvest season “harvest festivals’ 
were held, sometimes as religious ceremonials, but often as 
pure “jollifications.” A big basket dinner at the home of 
some sick neighbor, who was unable to complete his harvest, 
furnished an occasion for a helpful and happy social gather- 
ing. These were occasions, the passing of which rural people 
can sincerely regret, for they were pregnant with fine fellow- 
ship, merriment and whole-hearted neighborliness. 

The isolation of the pioneer developed. a form of recreation 
and limited associations which had distinctive features not 
found elsewhere in modern society. Such were the “sleigh 
rides,” the “hay-rack rides,’ “horse-back riding,” and individ- 
ual family visiting. These are now cherished more by city 
people than by country people. 

With the coming of institutional life. the appearances of 
the school and church, there developed the ‘‘box supper,” 
the ‘oyster supper,’ the old-fashioned “singing school,’ the 
“snelling match,” the “literary society,’ and the “school ex- 
hibition.” Camp meetings, revival meetings, and even month- 
ly preaching furnished social gatherings, which the pioneers 
counted among the féte periods. These forms of recreation 
are by no means absent from many rural districts today. 
“Fiddling contests,” the “rodeo or riding contests’ of the west, 
“ski tourneys” of the north, “turkey shootings,” and similar 
events, have been prevalent in practically every rural com- 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 365 


munity of America. They all show the tendency of people 
everywhere to play, and play in terms of environments. 

The characteristic features of these pioneer recreation events 
were, that they mobilized practically the whole community, 
and, wherever the idea of contest entered, it was cast on a 
purely individual basis. Every community had its “crack 
shot,” its champion “wrastler,” its “champion wood chopper,” 
its “best rider,” or its “best break-down fiddler.” Even the 
pioneer preacher was adjudged great according to his capa- 
city to “out-bellow” his denominational rivals, and every com- 
munity had its “bully” or best man. Such celebrations as 
they did have, were planned months in advance, and thus 
furnished great pleasure in anticipation, as well as brightened 
the value of the event when it transpired. These people’s 
lives were lived in isolation and, to a degree, were somewhat 
melancholy. Their recreational events were, therefore, tests 
of individual prowess, or given over to rollicking abandon. 
In one case, joy of conquest was furnished, and in the other, 
the joy of realization and release from comparative solitude 
was enjoyed. 

Characteristics of Present Rural Play and Recreation.—It is 
difficult to classify the periods of development in rural play, 
for tworeasons. First, because there have been no outstanding 
events, which have occasioned drastic change in forms and 
habits of recreation. Second, because rural communities vary 
all the way from those yet following the forms of recreation 
just described, to those that have provided themselves with 
the most modern play equipment and play programs. Definite 
things, however, have transpired in rural life to change the 
forms of rural play and the attitudes toward play. In the 
first place, all means of transportation and communication, 
discussed in Chap. VII, have served to bring rural people in 
contact with what is transpiring in city life. The organ- 
ized forms of recreation, which have been developing in city 
life for two generations, are now fairly well known to most 
rural communities. The introduction of farm machinery has 
made available a very much greater amount of leisure time. 
Thousands of schools have been consolidated, thus throwing 


366 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


larger groups of children together. These associations of 
children, and the fact that the consolidated school furnishes 
something like an adequate auditorium and playground, have 
stimulated community gatherings and community play and 
entertainment programs. The automobile has come in to ab- 
sorb the pleasure-seeking time of many rural people. The 
machine processes of farming have done much to kill the feats 
of prowess, based upon dexterity and fineness of workman- 
ship, which constituted materials for many old forms of rural 
contest. Rural people are reading more than they formerly 
did, because they are better educated, and because the daily 
paper is made available by means of the Rural Free Delivery. 
All these things have served to lessen the isolation—physical 
and social—of rural people, have served to draw them into 
association with one another, and to provide them with at least 
some equipment for play. 

The results of these changes in the rural situation itself, and 
the consequent changes in the attitudes of most rural people 
toward play, have been in two directions. They have served 
to introduce a certain amount of organized recreation and team 
games into rural play, but they have served also to eliminate, 
in many places, the old forms of play, without substituting in 
their places anything more than sedentary, commercialized 
recreation. Rural boys may, at one time, have known how to 
participate in only those sports which pitted one individual 
against another, but many of them today are not playing at 
all. Many country girls may, at one time in their pleasures, 
have been boisterous, and what would today be considered un- 
cultured, but even that was better than being nothing more 
than “movie fans’ or “joy riders.” Rural people, or city 
people either, for that matter, are not to be too severely criti- 
eized for availing themselves of commercial forms of recrea- 
tion. Shrewd business men sensed the universal demand for 
recreation before the public was willing to acknowledge the 
need, and people are willing to pay well for the advantages of 
play which these business men have furnished. Certainly not 
all play can be non-commercial. The Chautauqua is one of 
the modern great events in rural life, and it must, to a degree, 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 367 


be commercialized. The same is true of other types of recrea- 
tion. It is not the fact that play costs money that is at fault, 
but that it is not always wholesome or recreative. Many 
rural communities are between the pioneer days of individual 
sports, and the community parties and bees of one kind or 
another, and the day when definitely organized recreation will 
be provided by the community for all. This fact constitutes 
one of the greatest needs for hastening the spread of the 
modern play movement into the rural areas. 

An Adequate and Wholesome Recreational Program for 
Rural Communities—Now that we have before us the phys- 
ical, mental, and social values of play, the shortcomings of 
rural life which demand play, and the status of the play life 
of rural people, let us consider what the next step in providing 
wholesome and adequate recreation for rural people should be. 
Professor E. C. Lindeman presented the following forms of 
recreation as desirable for rural people, in a paper read before 
the American Country Life Association in Chicago, 1919. 

1. To develop the balance or symmetry so often lacking, 
because of habitual work activities of rural people: 


(a) Games which involve the free use of the entire body. 

(6) Games which require procession of action. 

(c) Games employing the expression of the rhythmic 
instinct. 


2. For psycho-physiological development: 


(a) Games which involve cooperative action. 

(6) Games which involve attention or the use of the 
higher nerve centers. 

(c) Games which are mentally exhilarating. 


He then suggests that these would require such forms of 
recreation as group games, organized athletics, folk dancing, 
and community singing. In this same paper are listed the 
requirements for good games for the open country, as those 
that are: (1) safe to health, (2) in which small, as well as 
large, numbers may participate, (3) which may be played by 
both young and old, (4) which may be played by both sexes, 


B68 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


(5) which require a minimum of equipment, (6) which em- 
phasize the instinct of cooperation, and (7) games and forms 
of play that grow out of the life of the people in conjunction 
with the community environment.’ These generalizations 
furnish the groundwork of principles and some concrete sug- 
gestions for developing a recreation program in a rural com- 
munity. In addition to these, we may emphasize the fact 
that, there are numerous opportunities to develop play and 
recreation in rural districts without providing an elaborate all- 
year program or expensive playgrounds or equipment. Once 
the physical, mental, social, and moral values of play are rec- 
ognized by rural people, play will be developed in the home, 
at the school, at the church, in the open spaces of the country, 
and in conjunction with the'towns. Dramatics and pageantry 
will be developed. Picnics, celebrations, vacation trips, and 
county field days will be used as means of constructively utiliz- 
ing leisure time. Music and art will be stimulated. Com- 
munity building, country parks, and other play places will 
begin to appear. All of these things are being done at one or 
many places in the open country now. The open country is 
rich with possibility of play. Hunting, fishing, swimming, 
riding, nature study, and many other natural sports are there 
to be utilized. Folk dances and songs developed in rural dis- 
tricts, and can easily be brought back into vogue. Leisure 
time has increased. The social institutions have grown more 
prevalent and more modern. The city is near at hand. What 
rural people need is education in play and play values. The 
small equipment necessary will follow, and expert play leaders 
will guide them in a kind of play that is healthful, wholesome, 
and pleasurable. 


EXAMPLES OF RurRAL RECREATION 


Play Connected with the Schools ——The most universal rural 
play program is developing in connection with the schools. 
This will probably be true for some time to come. Play is 


* Proceedings, Second National Country Life Conference, pp. 118-136, Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press, 1919. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 369 


prejudiced in favor of childhood in most people’s minds. 
Children of the same ages are now assembled in large num- 
bers at the centralized and consolidated schools. The close 
relation between play and educational technique, especially 
in dealing with children, is being more widely recognized. 
Play space, and equipment are most easily provided at the 
school, which is public property and under paid supervision. 
New York State has provided that any district or combina- 
tion of districts may employ a supervisor of physical training, 
and the state will contribute one-half the salary up to $600 
per year. A number of states, notable among which are Texas, 
North Carolina, and Maryland, have state interscholastie ath- 
letic leagues. In Texas, these leagues reach down into the 
smallest and most isolated communities of the state, and in- 
clude children of all ages. This work is under the direction 
of the Extension Division of the University of Texas, and is 
carried out through the schools. In twenty-five different 
states, definite legislation has been passed making possible the 
use of school facilities for social and recreational purposes. In 
addition to these twenty-five states, there are four others that 
are accomplishing outstanding recreational things through the 
schools; among those which are working without special legis- 
lation is Texas, whose project we have just mentioned. A few 
years back, the North Carolina state department of education 
inaugurated a supervised play system by providing a number 
of traveling play supervisors. Trucks were equipped with a 
complete moving-picture outfit. With each truck went a boy, 
to drive the truck and operate the moving-picture machine, 
and a young woman to direct the play of the children. Each 
truck made a regular circuit of five schools each week. The 
children of the school and the community were directed in 
their play in the afternoon, and the whole community was 
entertained at night, by means of the moving pictures and 
often some additional features. 

Hundreds of examples could be cited, where play equipment 
and facilities are being provided and supervised play furnished 
through the schools. The United States Bureau of Education 
is now publishing and distributing bulletins setting forth all 


370 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


the information necessary to inform rural school people of the 
means and methods of providing school recreation, and even 
recreation for those not in attendance at school. These bul- 
letins propose the use of the school equipment for Saturday 
and holiday use, the enlargement of the school space for play, 
the introduction of standards of sport efficiency, the introduc- 
tion of play into the curriculum, and in addition to this they 
give elaborate information on proper games to play, and the 
equipment necessary to provide for these games.’ There is 
very little doubt that another decade will have developed play 
as a universal part of the school program, and, through the 
school, to have extended it to a considerable extent to the 
whole rural population. 

Play Connected with Churches——Churches are rapidly 
changing their attitudes toward play. For a generation, they 
have been making use of suppers and sociables to raise money 
and attract persons to their religious programs. Many of 
them have made the transition to the conviction that there 
are spiritual, ethical, and moral values in play itself, and are 
making it a part of the church’s regular program in the com- 
munity. The church is not as apt a place to promote play and 
recreational events as the school, because it does not have the 
personnel staff or the play space, and because it is usually de- 
nominational and does not reach the whole community. 

H. P. Douglas, in his book The Little Town, tells of a 
church in Montana, with a community parish house open 
to all residents of the town and managed by a board of repre- 
sentative directors. It has a reading room, a game room, rest, 
and comfort rooms for country people, a gymnasium and baths 
available for men, women, and children. Athletics and clubs 
of all kinds are promoted.? E. de 8. Brunner, in his book 
The New Country Church Building, presents a plan to meet 
the social needs of a small community, where the people are 
few and means limited. This plan suggests the equipping of 
the parsonage rooms for social uses. Other plans are pre- 

*United States Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 40, 1913, and Bulletin 


No. 45, 1921, are examples of this service. 
* Douatas, H. P., The Little Town, The Macmillan Company, 1919. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 371 


sented for more elaborate programs. Examples of rural min- 
isters and rural churches, that have developed definite recrea- 
tional programs, have for the last few years been presented in 
church papers, agricultural journals, and national periodicals, 
in abundance. Ministers’ conferences and short courses quite 
universally today make recreation a part of their program, and 
often conduct courses in play and recreation. Overhead 
church organizations are now rendering the service of furnish- 
ing church plans which provide recreational and social rooms. 
The movement while not by any means universal among the 
churches, is making its contribution to the rural play move- 
ment. Not least among its contributions is its changed atti- 
tude toward play and pleasure. 

Community Field Days—Community field days are univer- 
sally promoted by the Y. M. C. A., the American Playground 
and Recreation Association, and boys’ and girls’ club leaders. 
The outstanding example presented here is of “America” in 
New York. America Field Day was inaugurated in 1910, as 
an experiment in rural cooperative recreation. One day each 
year, this community invites the whole countryside to a free 
day of wholesome recreation. All objectionable features of a 
typical carnival sort are eliminated. The principles upon 
which this community works are: (1) make the country as at- 
tractive socially as the city ;(2) boys and girls of the country 
have forgotten how to play; (3) don’t watch others play 
games, play yourself; (4) get boys interested in honest and 
healthy sports, and save them from drink and dissipation; (5) 
learn the great lesson that play is just as necessary for your 
sons as work; (6) the community’s festivals should be not 
only for the people, but of and by the people. This project is 
now incorporated as “The America Field Day Association.” 
It is conducted by a board of thirty directors composed of both 
men and women. Membership is open to all residents of the 
surrounding community. The dues are $1 per year. Cooper- 
ating in the project are the Y. M. C. A., the County Farm 
Bureau, the Grange, Boy Scouts, ministers, and school teach- 
ers. Games, both group and competitive, are played. A 
parade of floats is developed. ‘Drinks’ and “eats” are sold 


372 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


on the grounds. Dozens of basket dinner picnics are held. 
The event attracted 3,000 people in 1910, and over 10,000 
people in 1913." Granges, Farmers’ Unions, and Farm Bureaus 
are promoting such occasions regularly now. Such projects 
will have created demands for play places and parks, with the 
result that states and counties will soon provide these places. 


AGENCIES FOR THE PROMOTION OF RURAL RECREATION 


The Rural Social Institutions as Recreation Agencies.— 
Some slight discussion has been given of the various rural 
social institutions which do, or can, promote recreation in rural 
life. The idea here is merely to summarize the agencies which 
are participating in the promotion of the play movement in 
the open country. From this summary, it will be evident that 
the movement is well under way, and is destined, through its 
future development, to contribute much of joy and pleasure 
to rural life that is now lacking because of its absence. 

The home is a social entity in the country far more than it 
is in the city, where it has the hundreds of other agencies com- 
peting for the time and attention of its members. The devel- 
opment of home games, music, reading, vacations, and camp- 
ing trips has great opportunities for developing constructive 
leisure-time programs. Dr. L. H. Bailey, of Cornell Univer- 
sity, contends that every farm should have a piece of land 
containing at least one-half an acre, near the house, as a play- 
eround for the children. Here croquet, tennis, volley ball, 
and similar games could be played, and the sand box so uni- 
versal at the city home, but so universally absent at the 
country home, could be located. Flowers, bird boxes, etc., 
could be a part of the equipment. For rainy days, a play 
room in the house or barn could be provided. The problems 
of the rural home in the field of play are: (a) the gaining of 
more leisure time; (6) the development of an appreciation, on 
the part of the parents, of the values of play in developing the 
character habits and personality of their children; (c) supply- 


1 Adapted from Burr, W., Rural Organization, pp. 204, 208, The Macmillan 
Company, 1921. 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 373 


ing of good reading; (d) the necessity for relieving the monot- 
ony and restricted contacts of isolated farm home life; and 
(e) the equipment of the home and yard with play and game 
equipments. 

The church, we have already noted, is rapidly changing its 
attitude toward play, and to some degree beginning to par- 
ticipate in the play movement. Its chief contributions can be: 
-(a) in preaching the spiritual, moral, and ethical values of 
play; (6) in procuring a place and equipment for social gath- 
ering of all the community; (c) and, where adequate play is 
not furnished to the community through other channels, to 
direct the play itself. 

The school has been discussed at some length as a director 
of play in this and previous chapters. Its contributions lie 
in the following opportunities: (a) it is a dominant control 
of the time and life of children in their chief play ages; (b) it 
is a central place of meeting owned by all the people and sup- 
ported by their tax monies; (c) it has, or can have, the space, 
equipment, and supervisory force for offering constructive 
recreation; (d) play is coming to be recognized as a part of 
education; (e) the school, by expanding the use of its space 
and equipment, can be the central recreational place for the 
whole community. 

The government, by means of any or all of its units, can 
furnish parks and playgrounds, community houses, libraries, 
and community or school physical directors. It will, in the 
future, as the play movement grows, play a much greater role 
in the development and promotion of recreation than it does 
at the present. 

Farmers’ Organizations, Clubs, and Societies —The Grange, 
The Farmers’ Union, The Equity, The Farm Bureau, and 
dozens of less well-known farmers’ organizations are furnish- 
ing recreation to country people. Boys’ and girls’ club work, 
as a part of the agricultural college’s extension program, 
through their camps, field days, and picnics, is coming to fur- 
nish considerable opportunities of play and recreation. 

National Agencies Promoting Play in Rural Districts — 
The Boy Scouts of America, The Campfire Girls, The County 


374 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Work Department of the Young Men’s Christian Association, 
The National Board of the Young Women’s Christian Associa- 
tions, The Junior Department of the American Red Cross, and, 
to some extent, the Bureau of Public Health Service, and the 
National Child Labor Committee are all promoting play and 
recreation programs in one way or another in rural districts. 
Above all others, Community Service Incorporated, or the 
Playground and Recreation Association of America, is doing 
much in this field. These agencies are all well established, and 
have been functioning for a number of years. We list them 
to show how universal has become the interest in rural recrea- 
tion, and how much the future holds in store for the rapid 
development of this aspect of country life. 


CONCLUSIONS 


The stern and arduous work life that farm people have been 
compelled to live has developed in them a philosophy of life 
which has condemned all pleasure seeking. Farm labor does 
not develop the body symmetrically; it develops neither alert- 
ness of thinking nor cooperative actions. All of these are de- 
veloped by play and games. Rural people need recreation, 
because they need relaxation or release from the monotony and 
routine of farm tasks. They need a program of constructive 
use for their leisure time. And they need the social contacts 
and community spirit that are engendered by social and recre- 
ational events. Play should no longer be looked upon as a time 
killer or even a time filler, but as a means of personality, com- 
munity, and citizenship building. The recreation programs of 
the rural areas should utilize the materials at hand, but should 
not hesitate to cooperate with the village or town in supplying 
an adequate play program. Play should be provided for all, 
and all should learn to play. There are sufficient agencies and 
institutions at hand to make recreation available to every 
rural community of America, once the values of play are recog- 
nized and appreciated. It is as much a part of the develop- 
ment of children as is education, and as legitimate an activity 
as work. Its two great purposes are the development of indi- 


THE PROBLEM OF RURAL RECREATION 375 


vidual personality and community life. These are worthy 
ends for all life and, therefore, for rural life. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Proceedings, of the American Country Life Association, 1919, 1920, 1921, and 
1922, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 

Series of Pamphlets published by the American Playground Association of 
America, New York City. 

Cropper, EB. N., Rural Child Welfare, Chap. IV, The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1921. 

Curtis, H. S., Bulletin, No. 40, 1913, and Bulletin No. 45, 1921, United States 
Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. 

Curtis, H. S., Play and Recreation for the Open Country, Ginn and Com- 
pany, New York, 1924. 


CHAPTER XVII 
RURAL ART 
THE PLACE AND NEED OF ART IN RURAL LIFE 


The Role of Art in Rural Infe-—Gutzon Borglum was once 
asked for his own explanation of his cosmopolitan interests and 
intellect, why and how he came to be interested in politics, 
economics, history, sociology, and all those other topics which 
are of such dynamic concern to the every-day world. His re- 
ply was: 


“Why, man, such things are the very essence of art, for all art ever 
tries to do is to reach down into the lives of peoples and civilizations 
and lift their souls up where they can see them.” 


Because so many persons do not have a profound apprecia- 
tion of art, this whole field of human experience has come to be 
looked upon as something apart from work-a-day life. The 
artists, or maybe only near artists, have helped to encourage 
this misconception by flaunting their own eccentricities and 
raving over masterpieces and the masters that are unknown 
and so unappreciated by the masses. The role of art lies not 
in the unique, for the unique can just as well be incongruous 
and ugly as orderly and beautiful. Art consists in lifting the 
realities of life out of the commonplace, into which they so 
easily drift, and giving them dominance over the unrealities, 
mistakes and ugliness of our existence. As Borglum says, 
everyone is an artist to some degree, for we all love symmetry, 
beauty, harmony, and grandeur and we all love to create 
things. Small and Vincent list beauty as one of the six uni- 
versal interests of life, ranking a desire for it with the other 
five: health, wealth, knowledge, rightness, and sociability.’ 


*Smati, A. W. and Vincent, G. E., An Introduction to The Study of 
Society, pp. 175-177, American Book Company, New York, 1894. 


376 


RURAL ART 377 


Primitive people of all lands have their objects of beauty 
and grandeur. The great and grand places and things have 
been objects of veneration and worship among all people, for- 
ests, mountains, rivers, the sun and moon, and above all the 
starry heavens. People born and reared in the presence of the 
ocean, the mountains, or the broad prairies, without knowing 
it, inculcate a love of these grand things into their lives. They 
become cognizant of this fact only when robbed of association 
with these objects. 

Human life is so dynamic and human relationships so multi- 
farious and complex that the greatest tasks of all society con- 
sist in attempting to establish and maintain order, symmetry, 
and harmony in them. These human affairs drive and urge 
us and invite our attention and activity so constantly that we 
forget to see and know that outside of human affairs in the 
universe and nature are almost universal order, symmetry, and 
harmony. It is because of this fact, if no other, that art has 
its place in life. 

Beauty is more natural to the country than to the city, and 
more prevalent in the country than in the city. Cities know 
this and so try to introduce a part of the country into city life 
by developing great city parks, sometimes thousands of acres 
in extent. What country people need most to do is to con- 
serve the art that is naturally resident in the country, develop 
eyes to see and souls to appreciate it, and to recognize that 
they have always loved it and been a part of it. Lorado Taft 
once asked James Whitcomb Riley how he accounted for the 
fact that most poets and artists come from the country. The 
answer was: “The country boy has to amuse himself and he 
lets his imagination play, and out of that comes artistry.” The 
imagination of these boys, however, has played upon the resi- 
dent or existent facts of beauty in their every-day life and the 
every-day life of all those around them who had no imagina- 
tions or time to let them play. 

The Need of Art in Rural Infe——Professor Frank A. Waugh 
of Massachusetts State College of Agriculture says: 


Art is, of course, universal, and its principles are the same in the 


378 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


country as in the city. All we can mean, therefore, by rural art is 
the application of art principles to rural problems. When we reach 
this ground, no one can doubt that art is able to render a service 
to the country as much as to the city. Its purpose is to bring order 
and beauty in place of disorder and ugliness. 


The need of art, then, according to Professor Waugh, is to 
bring order and beauty into rural life. The open country 
already has great natural advantages over the city in these 
two respects. For in the country Nature’s reign is far more 
dominant than in the city. Hills, forests, streams, flowers, 
birds, natural landscapes are there. Life and creation are all 
about, and the farmer is participating in creating and nurtur- 
ing them. Not only are these objects of beauty there, but the 
spirit of art is in the life of the rural person who loves them 
and feels friendly toward them. No small part of making 
rural life satisfactory consists in magnifying these facts and 
these values in contrast to the attractions of the city. 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCENIC ART IN RURAL LIFE 


The Objects with Which to Work.—Rural art should start 
with the conservation and preservation of the natural beauties 
of nature. Landscapes have been objects of art through all 
time. Everyone loves a landscape. The fact that the farmer 
works with it in tilling the soil and is a part of it, often keeps 
him from seeing it. The preservation of rural landscapes de- 
mands the preservation of forests, streams, native shrubs, and 
flowers. It demands the elimination of unsightly billboards, 
ugly dumping grounds, and similar desecrations of the country- 
side. It must go further and promote the development of 
road planting, rural parks, and even proper home and farm- 
stead location. Some of these things will demand definite or- 
ganization for planning and improvement. In this, however, 
rural communities will but be following the lead of cities in 
exercising social control over the development of these things. 


*Quoted from Puean, J., Readings in Rural Sociology, pp. 248-249, The 
Macmillan Company, New York, 1920. 


; RURAL ART 379 


Community, township, or even county, improvement associa- 
tions can be organized to accomplish these ends. 

Public and Semi-public Buildings and Grounds.—These 
things have come to be chief objects for civic beautification in 
cities. The rural districts have fewer of these objects than 
cities have, but they do universally have school buildings and 
grounds, churches, cemeteries, and often community buildings 
such as Grange halls, Farm Union halls, or general community 
club buildings. These all furnish opportunities for developing 
the finest type of typical rural architecture. It is peculiar how 
this opportunity has been grasped by mountain summer re- 
sorts, but never by resident rural communities. Rural life is 
distinct, and so rural architecture should be distinct. The 
public building of a rural area is not fitted into a scheme of 
other buildings and a complex system of streets, but usually 
into a scheme of a single road and the broad landscape. There 
is no reason why every rural school and churchyard should not 
be a small, semi-public park. Artistic planting, flower beds, 
statues, and fountains can be provided without spoiling the 
play spaces at the school or in any way marring the usefulness 
of the churchyard. Rural cemeteries are about the only 
opportunity and only occasion for formal planting which the 
country has. They are usually either eyesores or beauty spots. 
The order, organization, and care of these places and buildings 
await almost universally the application of art principles. 
When this is done they will become stimuli to all to whom 
they belong or who live in their presence. 

Rural Homes and Farm Buildings.—These ought to be and 
are the easiest objects with which to start the development of 
rural beauty. It would be a great mistake, however, to as- 
sume that they are universally objects of beauty. Their drab, 
unpainted, poorly located, often neglected appearance is what 
makes the worst impression on the passer-by. The landscape, 
growing crops, and pasturing herds may impress the city 
dweller as picturesque but the homes in which rural people 
live are depressing and forbidding. 

Professor Waugh says, “The building of a new farm home 
is one of the most important episodes in life. It should be 


380 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


given long, careful, and prayerful study.” * It should be built 
in keeping with its surroundings, well located in reference to 
other buildings of the farmstead, tastefully painted and well 
planted with shrubs, flowers, and lawn. The lawn can be 
made a sort of individual park. Shade trees, climbing vines, 
beautiful flowers and a pretty fence (a necessity on the farm 
in many cases because of poultry and livestock) can all be 
utilized for beautifying the farm home. George Washington 
was a farmer and his farm home at Mount Vernon could well 
be an example to every farmer of the nation in home beauty. 
Literally hundreds of thousands of farm houses are not even 
painted and show no attempt at good planting or other means 
of beautification. 

Even where some attempt-is made at beautifying the farm 
residence, the other farm buildings are often in sorry contrast 
to the house. These farm buildings are work shops. The 
farmer has dozens of things to do and is often rushed in doing 
them. The result is that the barnyard is a litter of old ma- 
chinery, animal manure, rotted straw stacks, tumble-down 
fences, and dilapidated buildings. These farm buildings 
should be arranged compactly, in a quadrangle if possible, 
painted, well kept, and free from rubbish and débris. As is 
often said, “clothes do not make the man, but they do help his 
looks a lot after he is made,’ so farm buildings are not built 
first and foremost for beauty but beauty would do much to add 
to the self-respect of the farmer and the general approval of 
the public. 

Public Roads —Now that the modern era of road building 
has arrived, opportunities are offered for developing many 
roads into scenic highways. The road, traveled in an auto- 
mobile, not only gives an opportunity to get a panorama of the 
country landscapes, but may be an object of beauty in itself. 
If planted with rows and clumps of trees, the shoulders planted 
to grass and flowers, vistas opened up here and there, and ugly 
billboards, dumping grounds, and unsightly poles and wires 
eliminated, the road, with its trail of cement or gravel, can be 


*WaueuH, Frank A., County Planning, p. 79, Harcourt, Brace and Com- 
pany, New York, 1924. 


RURAL ART 381 


made one of the greatest objects of rural beauty. It belongs 
to the public, is built and maintained by public tax money, 
and, therefore, offers one of the most universal opportunities 
for country planning. 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL ARTS IN RURAL LIFE 


The Social Arts, Music, Pageantry and Drama are Closely 
Akin to Recreation.—A discussion of them has been left for 
this chapter because, in addition to offering means of social 
contacts and cooperative action, they also provide most apt 
ways of developing self-expression, and self expression, looked 
at from the individual point of view, is the heart and essence 
of all art. 

Music is an art or accomplishment that can be practiced or 
enjoyed in the most dire isolation. It is one of the most uni- 
versally appreciated arts. This is true not only in contem- 
porary time but has been so throughout all time. It appeals 
to the emotions, is the soul of harmony, and can be partici- 
pated in by one or by thousands. It is an art that can be 
universal in rural life. The lone cowboy on the plains makes 
use of it, and it is a part of the greatest multitudes that 
assemble. Today with the player-piano, graphophone, the 
radio, the best music of the world is available for rural home 
life. 

In olden days in rural districts, folk music and a “Singing 
School” were a part of every rural community. These, for the 
time, have about passed away. With their passage rural life 
suffered a distinct loss. Even whistling and individual singing 
are not so prevalent among rural people as they used to be. 
This is partly due to the absence of music promotion and 
partly due to those subtle psychological influences which are 
fast sweeping rural life into our commercial civilization. The 
process has gone so far that the “silent piano” is often more a 
piece of furniture than a musical instrument in the rural home. 
In this field the olden days must be brought back, for the 
values of music are too great to be sacrificed. As the Dakota 
Farmer puts it: 


382 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Farm mothers and fathers, you want your children to have strong, 
healthy bodies, to be sure. But more than that you want to create 
in them minds as broad as the prairies on which they live; instill 
therein ideals as high as the blue heavens that bend over them; 
and develop souls as pure as the winds that blow between that earth 
and sky! There are myriad ways to do it, but one of the surest 
ways is to give them that thing which has been herein advocated— 
music.+ 


The developing of music in rural districts is being accom- 
plished in various ways. It is quite universally becoming a 
part of the school curriculum. It received strong impetus from 
the war period when community meetings which were very 
numerous almost always made it a part of their programs to 
sing the popular camp and patriotic songs. Thousands of 
rural boys learned to sing in the army camps, and brought 
back with them to their rural communities the love of singing. 
Numerous recreational events at the school and church, now 
that there is a revival in rural community life, make use of 
music in their programs. College extension workers, among 
both the boys and girls and the adults, are promoting com- 
munity and group singing. The agricultural press is playing 
its part. And not least is the fact that graphophones and 
radios, bought sometimes only as fads, bring music into the 
rural home. 

The rural home is in many ways the best place for the de- 
velopment and practice of musical art. The school has too 
many other things to do to develop it very completely. The 
rural child is not distracted by the many competing stimuli 
of the city and, therefore, can practice music lessons and enjoy 
the use of music. The writer has noted in observing the 
awarding of school prizes for the year, in schools that con- 
tained both rural and urban children, that the overwhelming 
majority of prizes for progress in music are won by rural boys 
and girls. His opportunity for observing this fact has been 
rather extensive and he has yet to see this tendency violated. 

The farm family needs music. At the end of a hard day’s 


*“Music and the Farm Home,” Service Bulletin No. 112, The Dakota 
Farmer, Aberdeen, South Dakota. 


RURAL ART 383 


manual labor, the farm man and woman need rest and relaxa- 
tion. Books, pictures, or any other form of art cannot com- 
pete with dropping into an easy chair and listening to one of 
the children play the piano, or, if there is no one to furnish 
this type of music, listening to a melody or an opera played 
on the victrola or heard through the radio. 

Home singing and home orchestras are great assets and great 
pleasures in a rural home. Many wind instruments are easy 
to learn to play and it is not a difficult thing to develop splen- 
did and diversified home talent in music. 

Community music is again being developed. Folk songs 
originated with rural people, and out of their lives. We may 
not see a revival of the folk song, for the farmer is too much a 
member of the cosmopolitan world. But together with other 
community activities, and, in fact, as a stimulus to other com- 
munity activities, community sings, community choral clubs 
and choruses, community orchestras and bands are being, and 
should be, developed. These things have been more prevalent 
in the city, not because city people are more musically inclined, 
but because they have been more easily assembled and because 
the expert leaders and teachers of music have been located 
there. Now that the good road and the automobile have over- 
come the handicaps to assembling, we may expect to see a re- 
vival of community singing and music festivities. The Ameri- 
can Playground and Recreation Association of America has 
published a number of pamphlets providing information on 
how to organize and conduct such programs, and a number of 
other agencies, such as college extension service, the Y. M. C. 
A., and Y. W. C. A., are rendering similar services. 

The Pageant.—The rural pageant, while not so completely 
a play event as group or competitive games, is a recreation 
event with other exceptional values attached to it. It is a 
combination of art, play, and exhibition. It has for a long 
while been used to present legends, and historic facts. Re- 
cently it has been used to present ideas and standards for social 
attainments of all kinds. It is powerful in driving home these 
ideals, because of its highly dramatic technique and because its 
ideas are presented in visual form. A span of history, a social 


384 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


situation, or the life of the community as a whole are made 
to pass in miniature review, as it were, before the eyes of the 
very people whose lives it seeks to influence. 

The pageant is a folk drama. 


It is an attempt of a community to portray in dramatic form 
the outstanding facts of its historical background, and also to sug- 
gest the ideals and aspirations which have a place in its develop- 
ment.? 


The message of the pageant goes beyond that of mere his- 
torical fact to allegory and idealization. It tries at one angle 
to reach down into the life and soul of the community, and at 
another angle to point to some noble aspiration for com- 
munity life. Each community can make its own pageant and 
thus find or develop community self-expression. One person 
may have to write the pageant book but dozens, sometimes 
hundreds, can participate in presenting the public perform- 
ances. 

Some notable uses of the pageant have recently been made 
in rural life. ‘King Cotton,” an allegorical pageant designed 
to show the necessity of diversified farming in the face of the 
advancing boll weevil, was presented at Breneau College, 
Gainesville, Georgia, in 1920. The Burley Tobacco Growers 
Cooperative Marketing Association recently presented a 
pageant showing the life of a tobacco community and the 
necessity of community loyalty in working out their common 
marketing problems. The University of Kansas has stimu- 
lated the production of pageants in 120 rural communities. 
The extension division of New York State College of Agricul- 
ture has assisted in developing and presenting a number of 
community pageants, and the American Red Cross and 
Y. W. C. A. have done the same. 

The following is an example of such accomplishments in 
rural pageantry: 


One locality, without the help of anyone especially gifted, made 
its own pageant—one so beautiful that it will be remembered to 


*ArxKInson, R. A., “The Community Pageant,” equated in Eztension 
Bulletin No. 54, p. 320, of New York State College of Agriculture, Ithaca, 
New York, 1922. 


RURAL ART 385 


the latest day of the youngest child who saw it. An important 
anniversary in the town was pending, and all agreed that something 
should be done by way of celebration. The school teacher in the 
community suggested a pageant. The wise men said, “No. A 
street parade is the one and only fitting celebration of an historical 
event,’ and mentioned one which had been held twenty-five years 
before. However, six weeks before the date of the celebration, the 
wise men came to agree with the school teacher, and the pageant 
book committee went to work. Such studying of old histories, such 
ransacking of grandmother’s attic treasures, such interesting eve- 
nings together with pencil and paper and books and ideas! There 
was a rich historical background: the town had been the oldest 
English settlement in the state; there were remnants of an Indian 
tribe living near; the earlier generations of white men had fol- 
lowed the sea; but the present, alas! looked hopelessly uninter- 
esting—plain storekeepers and farmers and summer boarders, with 
a new element of people of foreign birth. But there were those 
on the committee who had imagination (a very necessary qualifica- 
tion in the making of pageants), and the last episode was so man- 
aged that it drew all the previous episodes together and made clear 
to the audience the meaning of the whole action. Such was the 
pageant at Southampton, Long Island.t 


A good example of the power of the pageant in community 
spirit development is presented by the following quotation: 


“One incident came to my attention the other day which will 
illustrate how the pageant is bringing together in neighborly rela- 
tions towns which have always been rivals: The tiny town of X 
and the village of Y were such, when X got up a baseball game, a 
dance or even a Red Cross picnic, Y positively refused to partici- 
pate. Of course, the same relation maintained as it does in any 
typical rural community. But now X and Y are rehearsing happily 
together in “The New Day” in neighborly felicity, for they are pre- 
paring together their own patriotic play for the audience of ten 
thousand of their fellow citizens who will assemble to participate 
with them on the Glorious Fourth! The rehearsals are being con- 
ducted in St. Thames, North Carolina, each evening, as I write this, 
the three hundred players representing twenty-two different villages 
coming together by automobile from their various homes, some of 

*Ibid, p. 326. 


386 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


them from a distance of twenty, thirty, and even forty miles. It 
is heartening in these days of our strivings toward democracy to see 
such signs. It is like the fresh green of the wheat fields after the 
barren pilt of the winter plain!” + 


The Little County Theatre.—Plays and other dramatic per- 
formances are being given in rural areas under various auspices 
in thousands of rural communities. The most notable con- 
structive development in this field is probably in North 
Dakota, under the tutelage and direction of Professor Alfred 
G. Arvold, of the University of North Dakota. The following 
excerpt from a bulletin of his will serve to present this move- 
ment quickly: 


My story is simple. It is a narrative on a work in the promotion 
and establishment of community centers in county districts. The 
scene is laid out on a Dakota prairie where seven out of every eight 
people are classed as rural. . . . They live in a land whose area 
comprises 71,000 square miles of rich black soil. The vocation 
of these people is agriculture. 

Because of the stupid monotony of the village and county exis- 
tence, due to the fact that the people in the county have not found 
social expression in the neighborhood, the tendency has been for 
both young and old to move to large cities. . . . That something 
fundamental must be done along social lines in the county in order 
to help people find themselves nobody will dispute. . . . The im- 
pulse of building up a community spirit in a rural neighborhood 
may come from without, but the true genuine work of the socializa- 
tion of the county itself must come from within. 

After careful study of hundreds and literally thousands of re- 
quests received during the last nine years, from every section of the 
state of North Dakota, as well as America, for suitable material for 
presentation on public programs and at public functions, with a 
personal acquaintance with hundreds of young men and women, 
whose homes are in small communities and county districts, the idea 
of The Little County Theatre was conceived. The idea conceived 
became an actual reality when an old dingy chapel on the second 
floor of the administration building at North Dakota Agricultural 

* Quoted from Kocu, Proressor Frepertck, The University of North Caro- 


lina, in Rural and Small Community Recreation, p. 100, Community Service, 
New York, 1921. 


RURAL ART 387 


College located at Fargo, North Dakota, was remodeled into what 
is known as “The Little County Theatre.” It is simply a large 
playhouse put under a reducing glass and is just the size of an 
average county town hall. The decorations are plain and simple, 
the color scheme being green and gold. It is an example of what 
ean be done with hundreds of village halls, used portions of school 
houses, garrets, and basements in county houses and county 
churches. 

The object of the Little County Theatre is to produce such plays 
and community programs as can be easily staged in a county church 
basement, in a county school, in the sitting room of a farm house, 
in the village or town halls, or any place where people assemble for 
social betterment. Its principal function is to stimulate an interest 
for good clean drama and original entertainment among the people 
living in the open country and villages, in order to help them find 
themselves that they may become better satisfied with the com- 
munity in which they live. 

The work of the Little County Theatre has more than justified its 
existence. It has produced scores of plays and community pro- 
grams. The people who have participated in them seem to have 
caught the spirit. 

Perhaps four of the most interesting incidents which have oc- 
curred in connection with the work of the Little County Theatre are 
the presentation of A Farm Home Scene in Iceland Thirty Years 
Ago, The Prairie Wolf, Back to the Farm, and A Bee in a Drone’s 
Hive. All of these productions have come out of the country people 
themselves. Standing room was at a premium. The Little County 
Theatre could not hold the crowds, 80 per cent of them were farmers 
who were eager to see drama of their own creation. 

The influence of The Little County Theatre in the state, as well 
as the nation, has been far reaching. Scarcely a day passes but 
somebody writes asking for data in regard to it, or for copies of 
plays, and matter for presentation on public programs. . . . During 
the last few years in North Dakota, hundreds of people, young and 
old, have participated in home-talent production and community 
programs. ‘Thousands of pieces of play matter and pamphlets have 
been lent to individuals, literary societies, farmers’ clubs, civic 
clubs, and other organizations. 

The future work of The Little County Theatre lies not only in 
the school house, the village hall, the farm home, and the basement 


388 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


of the county church. The cheap carnival at the county fair must 
be supplanted by the Harvest Festival in which all the people of 
the county take an interest and have a part. The farmers’ picnic 
must contain something more than a brass band and a baseball 
game. ‘These two splendid features must be maintained, but the 
pageant, a community play, in which the story of life is told, must 
become as much a part of the farmers’ picnic as the picnic lunch 
itself. 

To help people find themselves and their true expression in a 
community is the idea back of The Little County Theatre. It will 
serve as a sociological experiment station. Every day its vision 
grows bigger. In years to come, if the idea is thoroughly carried 
out, there will be more contented farm communities in the State 
of North Dakota, because people will have found their true expres- 
sion in the community. As a dynamic force in spreading the gospel 
of social recreation among people who reside in this and other states 
its worth can never be computed. The social life which will even- 
tually be built up around the community will be one characteristic 
of the inhabitants of that community. The soil must have a soul.1 


While the work of Professor Arvold is undoubtedly the most 
outstanding in rural play making in America, there are other 
institutions and agencies which are pushing the development 
of this field of rural art and recreation rapidly. 

The Rural Organization Department of New York State 
College of Agriculture offers expert promotion and copies of 
plays from which to select in this field. The Agricultural 
College of Utah gives instruction in the producing of plays for 
country districts and issues, through its Community Service 
Bureau, lists of suitable plays. The University of Wisconsin 
began rendering a similar service years ago. The Ohio Agri- 
cultural College, New York State College of Agriculture, and 
Hampton Institute (colored) all give plays at their Farmers’ 
Weeks. The American Playground Association renders serv- 
ice in this field and, of course, numerous local institutions, 
eranges, farm bureaus, and similar organizations are partici- 
pating in this art movement. 


1 Arvotp, ALFRED G., The Soul of the Soil, pamphlet published by Play- 
ground and Recreation Association of America, New York City, 1916. 


RURAL ART 389 


RURAL LIFE AND RURAL ART 


Getting Art and Beauty into Rural Life—Lorado Taft re- 
lated the following incident before the American Life Asso- 
ciation at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1920: 


A sculptor friend of mine told me the other day that when he was 
visiting a farmhouse in Poland—and what he saw was typical— 
the women made beautiful patterns there with sand on the earthen 
floors, and, doing this year after year, they became very expert until 
they were able to create some of the most delicate effects imaginable 
with nothing but sand of different colors. One day, he told me, he 
rode in a donkey cart—or something equivalent—-through the great 
doorway of one of these farm places and found it strangely deco- 
rated with scrolls and arabesques which reminded him of those 
which Dr. Schlieman found in Greece. To his inquiry ‘Who did 
this?” the reply was “Marylka.” Marylka proved to be a young 
peasant girl of thirteen or fourteen. It was not counted remark- 
able—just a part of her day’s job.4 


Mr. Taft then added, “Out of such things grow logically 
other and higher forms of art, but how are we going to evolve 
art from such lives as most of our people live?” Similar 
incidents could be multiplied in the older countries of Europe 
and Asia. The ballad music of Denmark fills four thick 
volumes. Folk lore and folk music is present everywhere. 
Both France and Denmark are dotted with statues of local 
celebrities and events. As Dr. E. C. Branson says, “Danish 
life is deeply rooted in soil rich in art suggestions, traditions, 
interests, impulses, and achievements.” He relates the fol- 
lowing personal experiences: 


On my way out of town the next morning, I happened to glance 
down a side street and lo, a great fountain playing twelve streams 
of water day and night in a tiny park set with shrubs and flowers! 
It was more surprising and, its history considered, far more wonder- 
ful than the great Munich fountain through which half a river runs, 
or the great fountain at Versailles which the state can afford to 
display in action only once a month. 


1 Proceedings, of American Country Life Association, 1920, Chicago Uni- 
versity Press, Chicago, Illinois. 


390 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


I got the story while waiting for my train. It is the design, in 
stone and iron, of a young artist born and reared in Vigen, a town 
lad whose art instincts have had little more to feed on than the 
drawing lessons in the town school, the art prints and bric-a-brac 
in the shop windows, the Danish art magazines, art stores, and art 
schools, the open-air statuary, the glyptolkik, and the Thorvolden 
Museum in Copenhagen. His first masterpiece was founded and 
erected at the expense of his native town with an appropriation by 
the town council, supplemented by small accounts contributed by 
almost everybody in Vigen. 

And this thing happens in a country town of 1,500 inhabitants. 
. . . It happens in Denmark because a youngster with a bent for 
art 1s steeped from his earliest years in a stimulating art atmos- 
phere—in his own home, in the homes of his playmates, in his 
school surroundings and activities, in the bookshop windows of his 
native town, in the postcard racks everywhere, in the art galleries, 
art exhibitions, art journals, and art-filled public squares, parks, 
and gardens of the Danish Capital.t 


The quotations from Mr. Taft and Dr. Branson tell us 
not only of our poverty of rural art interest in America as con- 
trasted with countries of Europe but give us some cue to how 
to get art into American rural life. We are not an art-loving 
nation. Our civilization is dominated with trade and com- 
merce and so with commercial values almost wholly. Further- 
more, we do not think of art as being a part of the life of the 
people or as something that arises out of their lives. We 
shall have to have it taught in our schools and churches and 
homes. We shall have to make a beginning and allow our- 
selves to develop a taste and a craving for it, as is always the 
case with cultural desires and pleasures. Farming will have 
to be looked upon as a mode of life as well as an occupation 
and an economic pursuit. 

Dr. C. J. Galpin suggests that some art-loving and art-ap- 
preciative philanthropist endow a Rural Art Foundation, raise 
rural art into an equal plane in exhibition and competition 
with other art, take it beyond the conception of “the man 


1Branson, E. C., Farm Life Abroad, pp. 162-168. University of North 
Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1925, 


— 


ESE eS lc OC 


Se 


RURAL ART 391 


with a hoe” and maybe create an American School of Rural 
Art.? 

The University of Illinois has created an Art Extension 
Committee which hopes to develop and circulate in rural 
districts exhibits of small but choice paintings and solar prints 
of the masterpieces. Women’s clubs, the Home Demonstra- 
tion agents, rural and village libraries, and the rural schools 
can become mediums for extending the art movement into 
rural districts. The promotion of plays, pageants, and music 
will cultivate art interest. The erection of a few monuments, 
other than the standardized ones to war heroes, would be a 
beginning. 

Getting Rural Life into Art.—The artists of America have 
not been fair to rural life. The life and activities of rural 
people are not idealized in painting, sculpture, literature, or 
music. Whenever they are the subjects of art at all, they are 
used to depict the bent back, the drear isolation, the un- 
sophistication of the farmer, or some inanimate phase of a 
rural landscape. As Dr. Galpin says: 


Let American art put itself abreast of the most patent occu- 
pation in America, abreast especially of the extraordinary advance 
in the occupation. (Let it) symbolize this wonderful created 
thing (the living product of agriculture) and commemorate the 
moment of joy in the farmer’s life when, having made the corn and 
wheat leap from the dead earth, he turns over to the world food 
to keep man going. Once to seize the outstanding thing about 
present-day agriculture, once to discern the idealism in the high- 
bred product, will be for art to forswear the hoe and to turn to the 
spirit of life in agriculture. 

We ask for interpretation, for expression of the high emotion 
wrapped up in the agricultural occupation. Emotion, however, that 
is not all pathos. We want the glory, the exaltation, of the real 
achievements of the farmer depicted, cast squarely in the eye of 
the beholder. 

We ask for a worthy symbol of agriculture to displace the hoe. 
We do not know what form it will take, but we trust the discerning 
artist’s mind to create the symbol.” 


*GaPIn, C. J., Rural Social Problems, Chap. XIV, The Century Co., New 
York, 1924. * [bid. 


392 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


The problems of getting rural life into art and getting art 
into rural life are reciprocal processes. No one is really going 
to idealize rural life until rural people themselves love it 
enough to raise it above the commonplace. On the other 
hand, few people will believe in the “soul of the soil” or the 
glories of rural life, so long as others belittle the occupation 
of the farmer, and by means of jazz and commercial standards 
consider him and his family inferior to persons of other walks 
of life. Before we can have a rural art, we shall have to de- 
velop a deeper appreciation of the part the farmer and his 
occupation play in civilization. After this comparatively 
pioneer, primitive, and transient commercial era has passed 
in our national life, we may expect to see other than work and 
monetary interests appear. ~ In the meantime, it is more than 
desirable that all agencies and persons attempt to vision a 
better rural life and lend their influences to the development 
of art, art principles, and art appreciations in rural life. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


WaucH, Frank A., County Planning, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New 
York, 1924. 

GatpIn, C. J., Rural Social Problems, Chap. XIV, The Century Co., New 
York, 1924. 

Tart, Lorapo, Proceedings of American Country Life Association, 1920, 
Chicago University Press, Chicago, Illinois. 

Arvotp, ALFRED G., The Soul of the Soil, Playground and Recreation As- 
sociation of America, New York. 

Communty Music and other Pamphlets of the Playground and Recreation 
Association of America, New York. 


Part Three 
THE FARMER AND HIS SOCIETY 


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CHAPTER XVIII 
THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 
THE PLACE OF THE COMMUNITY IN SOCIETY 


Its Universality—Man has always been a community ani- 
mal. In primitive society his community may have included 
no one except his relatives or blood kinsmen. This was be- 
cause, with no means of transportation and communication, 
and little knowledge of how to convert the products of nature 
into usable goods, only a small group could be sustained within 
a given geographical area, and there was little or no exchange 
of goods between geographical areas. Groups ranged over 
wide areas, but lived in consolidated communities for the sake 
of protection, and for the advantages of division of labor 
within the group, and for social intercourse. With the growth 
of knowledge of production, and the increase in trade and 
commerce the groups became larger, more diverse, and in some 
ways more independent in occupations, though more inter- 
dependent as members of a group. 

Now that the whole world is organized for economic and 
social endeavor on the basis of a division of labor between in- 
stitutions and service, a community must be large enough to 
provide a full set of institutions and service agencies, or it is 
not even as self-sufficient as was the old kinship group. Edu- 
cation, religion, government, industry, and even recreation, as 
well as the market are institutionalized outside the home. 
This development, while a great gain in social efficiency, makes 
it necessary for everyone to be a member of some definite 
community in order to participate in the functions which these 
institutions perform. Life is a unity with a definite set of 
needs. No one institution can supply all of them. There 
must, therefore, be some unit of association which will provide 
all of the necessities of life—food, clothing, shelter, health, 

395 


396 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


education, religion, recreation, and friends. This association 
is the community. 

The community is the first social group in modern life 
that approaches self-sufficiency. Individuals are never self- 
sufficient, and institutions are never self-sufficient. Commu- 
nities, of course, are not self-sufficient in the sense that they 
could build fences about themselves, and never feel their 
isolation from the rest of the world. When we say they are 
self-sufficient, what we mean is that they have all the major 
social institutions—homes, churches, industries, and govern- 
ments—as a part of their social machinery; and that they have 
a sufficiently diverse set of people, interests, and occupations 
to furnish all kinds of human service and human relations to 
make every-day life a going concern. Every need and want 
which is demanded for the sustenance of life, must be sup- 
plied by the community, or to the people of the community, 
through some agency that is a part of the social machinery 
of the community. The problems of food supplies, health, 
education, morals, and every other kind of problem which 
arises out of human life and human associations are present in 
a local community. Furthermore, the solutions to most of 
these problems are to be found in, or constructed out of, com- 
munity cooperation. 

Community life consists of organized team work for the sake 
of supplying the needs and desires of its members. As is the 
case with a football team, where every member must do a 
different thing from all others, but all of their activities com- 
bined make up the team play, so in community life there are 
many divisions of labor, but all are for the sake of the common 
end of sustaining life and supplying its many needs. The 
elements that constitute a community are its people, the geo- 
graphic area in which they live, the agencies which serve their 
needs, and their common purposes in life. The factors which 
weld them into a common life are their customs, public 
opinion, their organizations, institutions, and laws. These 
things keep them in step, serve their common needs, and 
make out of their diversities a group. 

In a local community, people are just as dependent upon 


THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 397 


one another or as inter-dependent with one another as they 
are in a larger society. In some ways the inter-dependence 
of people in a local community is more pronounced than in 
other associations. If there is an epidemic, a source of bad 
sanitation, a definite immoral element in the community, or 
a common task to be performed, all members of the commu- 
nity are more likely to recognize it and be concerned about 
it than they are when such problems confront the state or 
nation. On the other hand, business and commercial rela- 
tions are so often matters of wider contacts than those fur- 
nished by the local community, and books, magazines, news- 
papers, and apt modes of transportation and communication 
are such perfect means of reaching people outside the local 
community, that some persons who live in the community do 
not feel themselves to be very much a part of it. Of course, 
these people are members of the community, and are depend- 
ent upon all of its services, just as truly as if they recognized 
this fact. A person cannot escape from community life and 
live, unless he lives like the lower animals. 

The local community furnishes not only the physical en- 
vironment of the persons who live within it, but it supplies 
nearly all of their social environment. Their motives, habits, 
and ambitions are conditioned, and measured by the standards 
that exist in the local community. Their characters are made 
and tested there. The community furnishes the social at- 
mosphere for all of their institutions. It pours its influence 
into their lives, and they pour their lives into it, just as soon 
as they step their feet out of their homes. It furnishes them 
nearly all of their physical and social contacts, and it is out 
of these contacts that they manufacture, not only their attain- 
ments, but their selves and personalities. 

Rural Community Life in the United States—Farmers, the 
world over, until comparatively recently, have not been differ- 
ent in their desires for community life from all other peoples 
of all times. The colonial farmers, for the most part, lived in 
compact little communities favorably situated by sea or river, 
and any extensive agriculture that was carried on was on land 
that radiated outward from the center where the people lived. 


398 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


The present New England town organization is a direct result 
of the form of social organization of these early American 
communities. The settlements of Plymouth, Salem, New 
Paltz, Quaker Hill, and dozens of less famous communities 
settled by English, Dutch, and French, were all communities 
of this type.t The Boston and New Haven commons are 
heritages of these early colonial settlements. In Europe these 
colonists had lived in such agricultural villages, and they thus 
naturally established the same scheme of social organization 
when they settled in this country. 

Almost in the very beginning of agricultural develop- 
ment in America, however, the tendency toward disintegration 
of the close community settlement began. The colonist, for 
the first time, in many instances, had the opportunity for in- 
dividual land ownership. Convenient hillsides or fertile up- 
lands, a short distance away from the central settlement, in- 
vited them to a degree of isolated residence. Grants of large 
tracts of land from home governments led to the establishment 
in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere of 
large estates, and an attempt on the part of their owners to 
construct large manors of feudal estates such as had prevailed 
for a number of centuries in Europe. The Van Cortlandt and 
Rensselaer manors in New York, Doughoregan Manor of the 
Carrolls, in Maryland, and the Tinton Manor in East Jersey 
were examples of this type of settlement.?, The breakdown of 
these compact settlements went on at a rapid rate with the 
occupancy of the so-called “Colonial frontier,” or old west, 2.e., 
with the settlement of the back country of New England, Mo- 
hawk Valley, Great Valley of Pennsylvania, the Shenandoah 
Valley of Virginia, and the whole Piedmont plateau east of the 
Alleghenies. It became complete with the settlement of the 
New West, the great agricultural regions of the nation at the 
present time. 


*Evtine, I., “Dutch Village Communities on the Hudson River,” from 
Johns H Prine University Studies in Historical and Political Sctence, Vol. IV; 
and Apams, H. B., “Common Fields in Salem,” the same series, Vol. I. 

2 ANDREWS, C. M., “Colonial Folkways,” The Chronicles ‘of America 
Series, Vol. IX, Chap. II, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 
1919. 


THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 399 


Into these great, new, fertile agricultural areas, people 
poured from ali sections of Europe and out of the older settled 
areas of America. Land was plentiful and rich, and popula- 
tion was scarce and, for the most part, economically poor. The 
impulse on the part of the land hungry to gain individual own- 
ership made them willing to forego the universal and age-long 
tendency to settle in close communities. The result was the 
establishment of the isolated farm residence for the first time 
in the history of the world. The density of population in the 
state of Iowa as late as 1900 was only forty and two-tenth 
persons per square mile. In the writer’s own home neighbor- 
hood in Iowa, in 1900, where his father settled in 1874, on an 
isolated prairie tract of land with not a house in sight of his 
residence, there were two families directly from England, one 
directly from Germany, one from New York, one from Mis- 
sourl, two from eastern Iowa—previously from Indiana, and 
one from Pennsylvania. This cosmopolitan population, living 
on the average of at least one-half mile apart, each conducting 
an almost self-sufficient farm for two decades, presents a pic- 
ture of what had happened to the compact community life 
which prevailed in the early colonies. 

The task before the American farm family now is how to 
construct a functioning community life out of these diverse 
population elements. ‘The days of the self-sufficient farm are 
gone with the coming of the market and the exhaustion of the 
native fertility of the soil. The privations which the pioneers 
endured for the sake of individual ownership are no longer 
necessary, much less inviting and desirable. Some sort of 
community and community life must be constructed in order 
that those who live on these thoroughly established, isolated 
farmsteads may have the facilities and opportunities of modern 
life. 

During the last ten years, the community movement and 
community idea have gained great headway. The coming of 
the Rural Free Delivery, the rural telephone, the better roads, 
and automobiles have set up contacts, and created a desire for 
more contacts among rural people. The knowledge of modern 
facilities and standards of culture is almost universal on the 


400 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


part of farm people. They are bound to seek means and 
methods of availing themselves of these things. The experi- 
ences through which they passed during the late war showed 
them the efficiency of group and community action, revealed 
to them methods of community and neighborhood organiza- 
tion, and started processes to work which will not stop until a 
higher degree of community life and action is attained. Prac- 
tically all agencies now working for the improvement of rural 
life are working on a community basis to some extent. The 
farm and home demonstration work, the various farmers’ mar- 
keting projects, the recreation and uplift agencies, such as 
Boy Scouts, Y. M. C. A., and even the schools and churches, 
are now working on community programs. The community 
movement, represented in-city life by the public ownership of 
public utilities, consumers’ cooperative stores, settlement 
houses, community centers, institutional, church, and com- 
munity forums in cities, has reached the rural districts.1. Fur- 
thermore, national, state, county, and volunteer groups are 
talking, promoting, and organizing community agencies and 
projects in rural areas all over the nation. The results are 
sure to be the gaining for rural people all of those things 
which we have described as resulting from community life. 


THE NEED FOR RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 


The Uniqueness of Rural Infe-——In cities much cooperation 
is compulsory. The streets or pathways are all laid out, and 
must be followed; the factory and workshop start and stop 
at regular hours; the municipality has sanitary and housing 
laws which must be observed; the water, sewer, and light 
systems are public utilities; and the reign of law and govern- 
ment is quite universal. In the rural districts most utilities 
are provided by the individual farm family; the farmer starts 
and stops work when he pleases, or when necessity requires. 
He manages his own farm and household himself, and is seldom 
required to alter his individual inclinations because of outside 


*LinpbEMAN, E. C., The Community, Chap. VI, Association Press, New 
York, 1921, 


THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 401 


compulsion. The result is that he rebels against what Pro- 
fessor Carver calls, “the tyranny of the mass.” His geographic 
isolation, which has existed through generations and in the 
practices of his own individual life, has led to a social and 
psychological isolation which makes cooperation, in a wider 
unit than the family, more or less unnatural to him. Every 
member of the rural community realizes that he has a status 
as an individual; but because of the long practices of indi- 
vidualism, he often fails to see that he also has a status and a 
responsibility in community life. The rural community is 
exceptionally democratic in the sense that each individual has 
a worth of his own, but is highly undemocratic when it comes 
to the practice of community cooperation. The farmer has 
come to participate in the institutional life of the community, 
but chiefly because each institution satisfies a special need of 
himself or his family. He refuses to be “uplifted,” and so to 
a considerable degree refuses to assist in “uplift” projects for 
others. Nothing is more indicative of the attitude of rural 
people than the stigma which attaches to an individual or a 
family that cannot make his or its own way in life. The 
prevalence of this attitude sometimes leads to the neglect of 
these people when they need community assistance. 

There are relatively few people in arural community. This 
has not only decreased social contacts and habits of group 
action, but makes any group program or project difficult; and 
makes some types, that are practical in the city, impossible. 
If social classes exist in the rural community, as they often 
do in the South where the tenant and the Negro are prevalent, 
this further restricts the available people for democratic action. 

The rural community is likely to be made up of diverse 
ethnic groups—persons who have come into it from various 
geographic areas, and with different habits and customs. There 
are few opportunities or necessities for community political 
actions, which, in altogether too many cases, has been the only 
occasion for corporate action on the part of American people. 
The presence or absence of these very things in rural life con- 
stitutes the greatest need for community action. If the 
population is sparse, there is all the more reason why each 


402 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


person needs to put himself in a position to give assistance to 
and receive assistance from all the others. If people are geo- 
graphically isolated, the need is still greater for bringing into 
their lives those things which are universal where people live 
face to face. If there is a diversity of ethnic groups, they must 
work together, because there are not great enough numbers 
of each group to furnish the necessary institutional and com- 
munity facilities for each group to work alone. If there are 
social classes in the community, they must cooperate for the 
same reason. If “uplift” is needed, the very isolation of the 
one in need magnifies his need for social assistance. The 
difficulties of successful community action in rural commun- 
ities is what makes it so often absent there. Its absence con- 
stitutes the need for its promotion and development. 

The Growing Need for Larger Units of Cooperation.—Pro- 
found changes have taken place in rural economic and social 
life in the last century. In many farming areas it has taken 
place very recently. Like all great historic changes, the con- 
sciousness of it has followed long after needed adjustments to 
it have been present. Chief among these causes of change 
has been the growth of commercial agriculture and the con- 
sequent dominance of the market in rural economy. The com- 
ing of steam, electricity, and gasoline motive power probably 
follows next in significance. Following these come the drift 
of one-time universal farm processes into the factory; the 
erowth of villages; the development of public facilities such as 
roads, telephones, and mail routes; and, by no means least, 
the natural desire of rural people for better schools, churches, 
recreation centers, and other cultural facilities which their 
closer contacts with city life have led them to know are avail- 
able to other segments of our national population. 

The growth of the market in rural economy led to the need 
on the part of the farmer to take the village into his every-day 
life and plans. It eliminated his dependence upon his own 
farm as an all-sufficient economic unit. He now came to pro- 
duce for the market many of those things which pay best, and 
to buy from the market many of the things which he previously 
produced on his own farm, and to buy even more of the things 


THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 403 


which he and his family at one time went without. The de- 
velopment of steam, electricity, and gas motive power, to- 
gether with good roads, the automobile, and telephone, wid- 
ened his area of contacts, and set up possibilities and desires 
of wider units of group action. The drift of farm processes 
into industrial-producing plants, led to his need for these 
plants, and his desire to have some control over their opera- 
tion. His consciousness of cultural satisfactions led to a 
demand on the part of himself, and especially his family, for 
many things which cannot possibly be supplied from the farm, 
or even by the few and small institutions which served his need 
in an earlier day. Professor Sanderson says: “A rural com- 
munity consists of the people in a local area tributory to the 
center of their common interest.”* This center was at one 
time a neighborhood affair, most often centering about the 
school, the church, or some cross-road store. These small cen- 
ters no longer furnish satisfactions for his wider and more 
cosmopolitan interests. He, therefore, needs a wider unit of 
association, and needs it organized, that it may consistently 
render these services. 

The institutions of the rural community are no longer 
adequate to serve its needs, although at the time they were 
established, they made contributions by way of services which 
constituted great steps of progress in rural life. The one-room 
school made as great a comparative contribution to rural life 
in the day it was established, as the most modern consolidated 
rural school in America could now make. The small denom- 
inational church was a great gain to a community that had 
previously possessed no church at all. 

The coming of the cross-road store provided a service the 
absence of which had seriously handicapped the life of the 
pioneer family. The rural community has now outgrown all 
of these units of service, and is rapidly outgrowing the loyalties 
which have perpetuated them after better facilities are obtain- 
able. 

An institution is automatically a specialized service agency. 


1Sanperson, D., The Farmer and His Community, p. 10, Harcourt, Brace 
and Company, New York, 1922, 


404 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Its capacity to serve a specific need in a specific way is what 
led to its institutionalization. Each institution developed out 
of a human need. Each attempts to serve this need in its 
own specific way. The tragedy of institutions is that, when 
the need changes or a better mode of satisfying a need arises, 
the institution, school, or church, fails to respond with the 
better service. This thing has happened in rural life. New 
needs have arisen, wider areas of association have been de- 
veloped in market and social contacts, new interests and 
loyalties have been established. Because, however, the old 
one-room school and the small denominational church are 
there, because they are institutionalized, have institutional- 
vested interests of their own, and have established over the 
generations areas of association and intensity of loyalties, they 
refuse to give way. 

Now that other areas and processes of association have 
widened old loyalties, these small inadequate institutions are 
dying, and unless adequate institutions fitted to the wider 
area of the farmer’s present life are furnished to replace them, 
his loyalty to the service which they render will die also. 
Rural life will then be robbed of the services which they should 
furnish. 

The truth of this fact is tragically revealed in the decadence 
and death of thousands of rural churches, and even the small 
attendance in thousands of one-room schools. The life and 
needs of the farmer must be institutionalized on a wider base, 
a base that squares with his other areas of association, and 
with his more cosmopolitan interests in life. 

The Need for Community Control_—In seeking and finding, 
or creating, wider areas of operation and wider areas of insti- 
tutionalization, the farmer is confronted with the task, not 
only of breaking down loyalties to, and habitual practices in, 
the old areas and institutions, but with the very real problem 
of how to construct new facilities which will fit his needs 
and belong to him. In the period of disintegration of the old, 
he has developed either the habit of going without, or using, 
the facilities and services which could be supplied by the 
nearby town. The town, however, is a municipality within 


THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 405 


itself. It belongs to another group. Its area of control does 
not include the rural districts which surround it, although its 
functioning in rendering service often does. The farmer has 
a deep sense of economic proprietorship, and an even deeper 
sense of social proprietorship. It is therefore desirable and 
probably necessary that he have a unit of service and control 
that he can feel is his own. 

In developing new services for himself and his family, the 
farmer has developed a number of specialized control districts 
—school districts, road districts, drainage districts, and animal 
disease-control districts. Most of these he has incorporated 
and operated to serve his needs. When the old small school 
districts became inadequate, he formed consolidated districts; 
and when transportation was established on a wider base, he 
formed township- and even county-road districts. The need 
seems now to have arisen for a complete rural municipality. 
As Dr. C. J. Galpin says: 


The genius of a municipality is its equipment of legal powers, 
and natural environing circumstances for efficacious home rule .. . 
a municipality is established by law and set going, like a machine. 
.. . It is a single quite complicated machine, usually contrived 
to take care of a great number of very diverse projects . . . a group 
of people, having geographic unity, with similar interests, incor- 
porated by legislative enactment, given privileges and powers of 
home rule according to the size and needs of the group, is the best 
that civilization can yet offer as a local political unit.? 


The area for incorporation which Doctor Galpin proposes, 
would constitute an alliance between village and rural com- 
munity, with three zones. Zone One would be the village 
proper. Zone Two would be the immediately adjacent rural 
territory which uses the town not only for trade purposes, but 
many social sources as well. Zone Three would be those more 
remote rural areas which have some interests and need for 
services common with the town, but in addition have interests 
and needs not represented at allin Zone One. The desirability 


‘Garin, C. J., Rural Social Problems, pp. 215-216, The Century Company, 
New York, 1924. 


406 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


of such a scheme of rural-community organization, and the 
beginning attempts at its establishment will be discussed in a 
later section of the chapter. Suffice it to make the point here 
that the farmer does need some such scheme of organization 
as a tool for carrying on his enlarged and cosmopolitan ac- 
tivities. 


RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION AND ORGANIZATIONS 


Forms and Schemes of Rural Community Organzation.— 
Whenever and wherever common interests and needs arise and 
larger units of cooperation and association than the farm 
family are used in promoting these interests and satisfying 
these needs, community organization has begun. The develop- 
ment of such cooperative activities among rural people are 
now practically universal, though varying widely in form and 
compass. Some of these activities scarcely rise to the plane of 
organization at all, but they are nevertheless part of the 
erowing need and tendency to do things by means of group 
action, and so must be considered as part of the trials, errors, 
and successes by means of which the farmer is remaking and 
reintegrating his mode of work and life. Organization is never 
for organization’s sake, anyway, and where promoted on that 
basis has universally failed. Any attempt, therefore, to set 
up a universal scheme for rural community organization is 
both futile and foolish. Such an organization will not appear 
in America until we have developed a density of population 
beyond the furthest reaches of present imagination. Even 
then it will have to appear as a product of experience and ex- 
periment, and not as a product of the mind of some ingenious 
rural social engineer. This is not to say, however, that the 
study and promotion of better and more efficient forms of 
social cooperation are not worthy on the part of every one 
who lives in the country, or who seeks to work for a better 
rural life. The results already obtained have, of course, come 
from just such endeavors. 

It would be impossible to describe all the various kinds of 
rural organizations that exist in the open country. Anyone 


THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 407 


who, for a few years, will read and clip the agricultural journals 
and other periodicals dealing with rural life affairs, will find 
himself in possession of descriptions of such diverse community 
projects and programs as to make him see that classification is 
impossible. We shall not here even attempt to list types in the 
sense of offering these types as a classification of rural com- 
munity organizations, but only as evidence of the universality 
of the movement, and its gradual tendency to take even more 
definite form on the bases of wider areas and more composite 
programs. 

The types of organizations listed here have not appeared 
chronologically; though, taking the nation as a whole, the 
sequence has been somewhat in the order mentioned. At any 
rate, the order in which they have appeared in rural life has 
been first, the loose and narrower forms of organization; and, 
later, the more constitutional and broader forms of organiza- 
tion. The reader will have to depend for illustration on the 
citation given in the footnotes, since lack of space here forbids 
detailed description of organization. 

Informal and. Spasmodic Meetings.—These have, of course, 
been a part of the practices of rural districts in all times. The 
frequency with which members of rural communities are meet- 
ing together, and the larger groups that are assembling are the 
new things about such community action today. This is due 
to easier and better means of transportation, the establishment 
of better meeting places, and the appearance in rural affairs 
of a number of experts who seek to give assistance in one way 
or another to rural people. The writer witnessed, within the 
last sixty days of the time he is writing this chapter, a gather- 
ing of between 2,000 and 3,000 people at a rural graduating 
exercise and basket dinner. This was in the wide-open 
country, thirteen miles from the nearest town. There were 
probably from 800 to 1,000 automobiles there, and not a single 
horse-drawn vehicle present. People had come from as far as 
twenty miles for this occasion. Such a gathering would have 
been impossible before the day of automobiles. By actual 
count of frequency of community gatherings, the first year 
after consolidation shows an increase between ten and eleven 


408 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


times that of the year before the districts were consolidated. 
Farm and home demonstration workers, agricultural extension 
specialists, health workers, and other specialists, coming into 
farm communities, increase the frequency of the meeting of 
rural people. In all of these illustrations, we are speaking only 
of the type of meeting that is not periodic or prearranged by 
some established community organization. This is happening 
everywhere in rural communities in America, and can, in a 
way, be looked upon as the first chronological step toward 
community organization. 

Community Fars and Exhibits.—These, while not forms of 
community action that are common to all American rural 
communities, have in one form or another come along with 
the promotion of scientific agriculture. They vary all the way 
from loosely organized affairs to planned agricultural exhibits, 
with educational, recreational, and social features carefully 
worked out in advance. Many of them have a definite organi- 
zation, with officers, committees, and even constitution and 
bylaws. The point stressed here, however, is not the scheme 
of their organization, but the fact that they have arisen quite 
naturally out of a new element that has recently entered the 
rural community, namely, scientific agriculture, with its 
definite standards of measurement and established method of 
demonstration teaching.’ 

Cooperative Enterprises—Among farmers in America, these 
took their rise chiefly following the Civil War. The Grange, 
the Agricultural Wheel, the two organizations of the Farmers’ 
Alliance, and later the Farmers’ Union, the Equity, and the 
Gleaners were, or are, national farmers’ societies. Most of 
these societies arose out of the attempt on the part of the 
farming population to catch step with the methods of the busi- 
ness and commercial world into which rural people now found 
their affairs cast. Most of these groups had schemes of social 
organization, periods for regular meetings, and, often, well- 
organized community programs. Some of them—notably the 


*Moraan, J. 8., “The Community Fair,” Farmers’ Bulletin No. 870 United 
States Department of Agriculture, Washington; and Jorpan, S. M., “Enter- 
tainments for Farm Fairs,” Monthly Bulletin No. 3, Vol. XXI, Missouri 
State Board of Agriculture, Jefferson City, Missouri. 





THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 409 


Grange, the Gleaners, and the Farmers’ Union—have done 
outstanding pieces of work in furnishing to farm communities 
better meeting facilities, as well as programs of enlightenment 
and entertainment.’ More recently the farm bureau and the 
great farmers’ cooperative marketing organizations have come 
into the field. The farm bureau attempts to encompass all 
the needs of the rural communities in its activities, and a 
number of the cooperatives have developed community pro- 
grams and community local organizations which furnish edu- 
cation, recreation, and entertainment as well as care for co- 
operative business affairs at their meetings.” On the whole, 
the community programs and projects of these organizations 
may be said to be by-products of their economic purpose, al- 
though this is not true of the Grange, which, from its origin 
has been a social and fraternal organization. 

Clubs of various kinds have arisen by the thousands in the 
rural communities of the nation. Some of these, such as 
the Missouri Farmers’ Club, the Illinois agricultural clubs of 
the sixties, and the boys’ and girls’ production clubs of the 
agricultural-extension work have been systematically promoted 
for economic purposes. In addition to these, however, there 
are literary clubs, community improvement clubs, womens’ 
clubs, ete. Some of these conduct their activities only during 
the slack-work seasons, and others are permanently organized 
with a set of permanent annual officers, and carry on their 
work regularly throughout the year.* These clubs are prob- 
ably the most universal of any kind of organization found in 


‘Wrist, E., Agricultural Organization in the United States, Chaps XVI, 
XVII, XIX, XX, and XXI, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 
1923; and Burterrietp, Chapters in Rural Progress, Chap. X, The Univer- 
sity of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1907. 

2 Burrett, M. C., The County Agent and The Farm Bureau, Harcourt, 
Brace and Company, New York, 1922; and Kits, O. M., The Farm Bureau, 
The Macmillan Company, New York, 1921; also Ketuy, E., Handbook for 
Organizing Agricultural Communities, Tobacco Growers’ Cooperative Associa- 
tion, Raleigh, North Carolina; Lantis, B. Y., Several Aspects of Farmers’ 
Cooperative Markets, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1925. 

’Lantis, L. O., “Farmers’ Clubs,” Hztension Bulletin, Ohio State Uni- 
versity, Columbus, Ohio, 1917-1918; Cuocuerron, B. H., “Agricultural Clubs in 
California,” California Experiment Station Circular No. 190, Berkeley, Cali- 
fornia; Hayes, A. W., “Examples of Community Enterprise in Louisiana,” 
Research Bulletin No. 3, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. 


410 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


rural districts, and are an index to an enlivened community — 


life and a felt need for specific action in different directions or 
on definite projects. 

School and Church Community Programs.—The old, well- 
established institutions of the rural community have responded 
to the need for better and wider community action, and have 
begun to develop community programs in addition to carrying 
on their specialized institutional functions. The consolidated 
school particularly has contributed much to the development 
of community meetings, community programs, and commu- 
nity organization. But even before the consolidated school 
appeared, the smaller schools and their developing community 
programs were here.’ The consolidated school serves a wider 
area and a greater number-of families, has a larger and better- 
equipped set of buildings and grounds, is almost universally 
provided with an auditorium, and is itself an index to the 
establishment of the wider farm community. It is considered 
by many to be the ideal basis upon which to construct a rural 
community center. A careful study of its influence would 
probably reveal that it is giving more definite form to the 
new and reintegrated rural community than any other agency.’ 

The tendency on the part of the rural church to enlarge its 
community program was probably more marked before the 
day of the consolidated school than any other rural institu- 
tion. Agricultural journals, church papers, and national peri- 
odicals have for the last decade been presenting examples of 
such outstanding community activities on the part of hun- 
dreds of rural churches. Particular denominations, such as 
the Mennonites, Dunkers, Almish, and particularly the Mor- 
mons have built all community activities and community life 
about the church. Federated and union and community 
churches are becoming more prevalent. The activities of the 
church vary all the way from ladies’ aid societies to complete 


*Carney, M., “Country Life and the Country School,” and CHocHEron, 
B. H., et al., “The Rural School as a Community Center,’ Tenth Year Book 
of National Society for Study of Education, Part II, University of Chicago 
Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1911. 

*Coox, J. H., “The Consolidated School as a Community Center,” Pro- 
ceedings, American Sociological Society, Vol. XI, pp. 97-105, University of 
Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1916. 


THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 411 


community organization programs. All these activities are 
indexes to the community movement in rural life. 

Federations and Community Councils —These have begun 
to appear in rural communities. Federations of all the social 
agencies of a community have come near accomplishing the 
complete organization of the rural community. At least, they 
accomplish the integration and coordination of all the special 
activities that are being carried on in the community. Such 
organizations not only bring all the agencies and institutions 
resident in the rural community together, to work out a well 
rounded community program, but tend to eliminate duplica- 
tion and overorganization, both of which have become serious 
menaces to rural advancement. The movement which we 
have been discussing has become so universal, such great num- 
bers of new organizations and agencies have sprung up, and 
old agencies have so widened their activities that they are 
jostling each other, and sometimes harassing the rural com- 
munity in their attempts to serve its interests. 

Community councils and federations bring representatives 
of all these agencies together into a central advisory group, and 
plan for an acceptable division of labor between themselves. 
Sometimes this central group has the powers of an executive 
body. Such organizations bring together all such affiliations 
as have just been discussed, and promote all the activities 
which these separate bodies have been developing. In as far 
as they are a natural outgrowth of what has gone before, they 
seem to constitute the next proper step in rural organization. 

The community-council form of organization has its set 
of officers, its executive committee (the community council), 
its sub-committees on agriculture, business, health, morals 
and religion, education, recreation, and sometimes others. It 
holds an annual community mass meeting at which it elects its 


1See ZUMBRUNNEN, A. C., The Community Church, University of Chicago 
Press, 1922; Fiske, G. W., The Challenge of the Country, Chap. VII, As- 
sociation Press, New York, 1919; Witson, Warren H., The Church of the 
Open Country, Chaps. II, V, and VII, Eaton and Mains, New York, 1911; 
and Harareaves, J. R., “The Rural Community and Church Federation,” 
American Journal of Sociology, September, 1914. 


412 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


officers, receives reports, and constructs plans for the following 
year. It is about as complete a plan of community organiza- 
tion as can be expected at the present time; and, while by no 
means prevalent in rural districts, is in existence in a number 
of places. It may be properly looked on as the present end 
product of all the activities and organized endeavors which 
have developed during the period of rural community move- 
ment.* 

Incorporated Rural Communities—For some time, states 
have been enacting laws permitting rural people to incorporate 
areas of community interest and concern, in order that they 
may more adequately provide for larger and wider programs 
of community action. Examples of enactment, enabling the 
formation of new and consolidated school areas, are found in a 
great many states. Wisconsin and Michigan have passed laws 
enabling rural communities to establish community councils, 
community centers, and community buildings in areas defined 
by their own needs. In Arkansas and Michigan amendments 
to the school laws have been passed which enable school dis- 
tricts to cross county boundaries.” 

In only one state, however, has provision been made for the 
incorporation of rural communities to carry on, under political 
control, all activities which they may care for or need. Section 
6, of the North Carolina laws, provides that: 


At each meeting of the registered voters of a community, they 
shall have the right to adopt, amend, or repeal ordinances, provided 
such action is not inconsistent with the laws of North Carolina or 


*“Rural Organization,” Proceedings, Third National Country Life Con- 
ference, 1920; also, “Reports of Committee on Country Life Organization,” 
in other volumes of the same Proceedings, University of Chicago Press, 
Chicago, [llinois; McCienanan, B. A., Organizing the Rural Community, 
Chaps. V and VI, The Century Company, New York 1922; LinprMan, 
HietGinthe Community, Chaps. X and XI, Association Bree New York, 
1921; Moraan, E. L., “Mobilizing the Rural Community,” Extension Bulletin 
No. 23, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Massachusetts, 1918; 
Report of Twentieth Anniversary of Cooperative Education League of Vie 
ginia, Richard, Virginia, 1924. 

* Dovaras, H. P., “Recent Legislation Facilitating Rural Community Or- 
ganization,” Proceedings, Third National Country Life Conference, 1920, 
pp. 117-132, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ilinois. 





THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 413 


the United States, concerning the following subjects: the public 
roads of the community; the public schools of the community; 
regulations intended to promote public health; the police protection; 
the abatement of nuisances; the care of paupers, aged, or infirm 
persons; to encourage the coming of new settlers; the regulation of 
vagrancy; aids to the enforcement of state and national laws; the 
collection of community taxes; the establishment and support of 
public libraries, parks, halls, playgrounds, fairs, and other agencies 
of recreation, education, health, music, art, and morals. 


Even the North Carolina community incorporation law 
does not fully provide for the needs of an adequate commu- 
nity. Its application is restricted to too small an area—a 
county-school district not exceeding two miles square. Such 
an area is not only too small for the broader functions of the 
modern rural community, but is too likely to be applied to 
present school districts which may not coincide at all with 
other community areas and interests. Six rural communities 
have thus far incorporated under the provisions of the act, and 
while none of them have promoted all of the activities enabled 
by the act, they have the municipal unit, board of directors, 
and the autonomous legal power to do so. The significance 
of the law is far reaching as a precedent. It sets the stage for 
the establishment of a rural municipality whenever the com- 
munity movement has developed a sufficiently large and ac- 
curate body of knowledge to know what it wants and should 
have. 

Constructed Communities—One of the most significant 
movements of the present is the tendency on the part of the 
Reclamation Division of the United States Department of 
the Interior to construct complete communities in reclamation 
areas. In advocating this policy, it is following the example 
of California, where two complete settlements—communities 
planned and developed with all modern facilities of community 
life—have been built. In addition to the impetus which the 
Reclamation Service will apparently give the movement, there 
is the newly organized Farm Communities Association, which 
takes for its purpose the construction of complete communities 


414 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


in now settled or partially settled areas. If these two agencies 
succeed in their efforts, we may expect to see much of our un- 
occupied land some day developed into complete and scien- 
tifically constructed rural communities.’ 

Some Principles of Rural Community Organzation.—In the 
immediately preceding section of this chapter, we have at- 
tempted to show that rural community activity has greatly 
increased in America in the last generation; that the organ- 
ized activities of rural people are very diverse but quite uni- 
versal; that there is developing a tendency to federate or con- 
solidate these activities into a unified community program; 
and that there are appearing some signs of a definite recogni- 
tion of the existence of, and need for, autonomous rural com- 
munity municipal entities. Let us now draw together some 
observations and generalizations concerning all these diverse 
activities. 

In the first place, it is apparent to all those who have ob- 
served rural activities and rural life first hand throughout the 
nation, that no patent scheme of community organization 
will yet apply to all rural communities. Some rural com- 
munities are composed of ethnic or religious groups that have 
an institutional or psychological autonomy that does not ex- 
ist in others. Some have such diverse racial elements in them 
that complete community association is not at all feasible or 
possible. Some are being rapidly disintegrated and reinte- 
grated because of their proximity to village, or even city, areas, 
while others are yet little affected by the influence. Some 
have developed a long gamut of community activities and 
organization, while others are yet living in the pioneer stage 
of agriculture. 

Obviously, therefore, the first principle of community or- 
ganization must be to build upon, coordinate, and facilitate 
community action on the basis of the activities and agencies 
already there. 


*Meave, E,, Helping Men Own Farms, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1920; Briacx, J. D. and Gray, L. C., “Land Settlement and Coloniza- 
tion in the Great Lakes States,” Department Bulletin No, 1295, United States 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D, C., 1925, 


THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 415 


The second principle should be to widen the scope and ac- 
tivities of the existent agencies to wider units and diversity of 
interests. 

The third principle should be to bring representatives and 
leaders of these agencies, institutions and organizations to- 
gether in a council, in order that duplication may be elimi- 
nated, and new activities be encouraged by the agencies and 
leaders in whom the people have confidence. 

The fourth principle should be to educate all agencies and 
leaders of those activities which work with wider units of social 
organization than the family, to the efficacy of group or com- 
munity action in carrying forward their projects, and in render- 
ing service to rural people. 

The fifth principle should be to make the leaders and di- 
rectors of overhead organizations and agencies who have repre- 
sentatives working in rural districts see that the people of the 
local rural community are of greater importance than the 
smooth administrative working or vested interests of any 
national, state, or institutional piece of machinery. 

The sixth principle should be to establish a local receiving 
station, as it were, a community meeting place, of some char- 
acter where the members of the community can receive all the 
messages which are being broadcast from dozens of central 
stations for their benefit. At the present time the local rural 
community is not in a position even to receive the service 
attempting to aid it, chiefly because each of its specific needs 
is trying to be served by one or more agencies which have no 
apt medium through which to transmit its message. 

The seventh principle should be to encourage participation 
in community action on the part of all members of the com- 
munity. Through such participation, leadership and self-sup- 
port will be developed. Community organization must grow 
out of a knowledge, on the part of rural people, of their capac- 
ity to render service to themselves. It is only by means of 
democratic participation in supplying satisfactions of com- 
mon needs and desires that community life and community 
action can be accomplished. 


416 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


COMMUNITY CENTERS AND BUILDINGS 


The Community Center Idea—The community center may 
be thought of as a specialized community building, specifically 
erected for community-wide purpose; or as some building 
already in existence where the community most often gathers 
together; or a whole set of buildings organized at a geographic 
center; or even as a village where rural people find the great- 
est number of service agencies by means of which to satisfy 
their individual and common desires. 

Whatever it is, it should be real, tangible, and recognized by 
the people who use it as belonging to them. Furthermore, it 
should be planned and operated as a center of community in- 
terest and service. It should not be an artificially constructed 
thing, else it will be nothing more than a center in name. 
Some persons have presented ideal and Utopian schemes for 
community centers with a set of buildings, play spaces, and 
personnel to operate them. Such facilities are not possessed 
by city communities, and would not fit into any scheme of 
community organization less perfectly organized than com- 
munism. What rural people want and what they are tending 
to develop are centers where their dominant interests can be 
served and their common life developed. The school and the © 
church have been doing this ever since their establishment; 
the marketplace now does it in one or more capacities; the 
public recreation places do it in another capacity; and still 
other centers do it for other common interests. Professor C. 
J. Galpin set this forth clearly when he made what he called a 
study of “the Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Commu- 
nity.”* Similar studies have since been made in different 
areas of the United States. All tend to show that, as the struc- 
ture of rural society has developed, it has developed different 
areas of service for each rural interest. There are trade zones, 
school zones, church zones, recreation zones, and the like. 
Even the trade zones do not always cover the same area, for 


'Gatptin, C. J., The Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community, Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. 


THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 417 


many of their functions depend for adequate service upon 
established economic and social institutions whose efficiency of 
operation demand different volumes of clientele for support. 
Thus, rural life not only has, but probably should have, its 
interests served from various centers. To try to organize it 
otherwise, would not only be Utopian but futile.* 

It should not be assumed, however, that because the struc- 
ture of rural society and the organization of its social interests 
have developed along certain lines, nothing can or should 
be done to furnish better facilities for serving these interests, 
or even that nothing can or should be done to develop centers 
of activity and organization different from any that now exist. 
The changes that have taken place in rural life, due to the 
coming of commercial agriculture and better means of trans- 
portation and communication, have disintegrated many of the 
old centers with the result that many rural interests are now 
being poorly served. The present dominance of the market in 
agricultural economy has tended to pull rural people together 
into contact in the villages and towns. In the town the in- 
stitutions are either built to serve the needs of the trades 
people, or are commercialized. We still need, therefore, the 
promotion of centers which will definitely and adequately 
serve the interests of rural people. 

One-room Schools.—These have been known to develop in- 
to community, or, probably better considered, neighborhood 
centers, where neighborhood playgrounds have been con- 
structed, bands and other community musical organizations 
organized, farmers’ institutes held, cooperative buying clubs 
formed, boys’ and girls’ production clubs organized, farm 
demonstration plats constructed, women’s clubs formed, neigh- 


*See the following three reports of studies in different sections of the 
country as evidence of the great difference in population, ethnic groups, 
traditional and present structure of rural society: Kos, J. H., “Rural Primary 
groups,” Research Bulletin No. 51, Agricultural Experiment Station, University 
of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; SANpERSON, D., “Locating the Rural Com- 
munity,” New York State College of Agriculture, Ithaca, New York; and 
ZIMMERMAN, C. C. and Taytor, Cart C., “Rural Organization, A Study of 
Primary Groups in Wake County, North Carolina,” Bulletin No. 245, North 
Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, Raleigh, North Carolina. 


418 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


borhood socials held, clubs of all kinds formed, entertain- 
ments and social meetings of all kinds held.* 

Consolidated Schools.—Very frequently, these develop into 
community centers. They furnish meeting places for farmers’ 
institutes and short courses, community clubs, parent-teachers’ 
associations, Sunday-school conventions, community socials, 
lecture courses, school and community dramas and concerts, 
old settlers’ picnics, community fairs, farm demonstrations of 
all kinds, cooperative meetings, athletic meets, and practically 
every other form of community or neighborhood activity im- 
aginable.? 

Rural Churches—These, also, have in a great many in- 
stances developed into community centers. The pastor and the 
congregation have used the church buildings for all kinds of 
social gatherings, made space available for conducting high 
schools, developed recreational and athletic facilities, organized 
different musical groups, given home-talent entertainments, 
organized community study courses, lent their buildings for 
farmers’ institutes and other agricultural club meetings, turned 
the parish house into open house, and in many other ways 
made them available and useful in serving the needs of the 
whole community.° 

Grange and Farm Union Halls have served in many areas 
of the country as community centers. The programs of 
these societies themselves are as broad and diverse as the 
interests of the community. But in addition to their own 
organization programs, these halls have been used for religious, 
educational, entertainment, social, and business meetings of 
all kinds in which all members of the community may par- 
ticipate whether members of these secret societies or not. 

Commumty Buildings—These have been constructed fairly 

*Krmpaty, Auice M., “Rallying Round the School,” Country Gentleman, 
Jan. 19, and Jan. 26, 1918. 

* Hayes, A. W., Rural Community Organization, Chap. VI, University of 
Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1921. 

“PHELAN, J., Readings in Rural Sociology, pp. 411-421, The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1920; Witson, Warren H., The Church of the Open 
Country, Chap. II, Eaton and Mains, New York, 1911; Morsr, R. Fear 


God im Your Own Village, Chaps. VI, VII, and VIII, Henry Holt and Com- 
pany, New York, 1918. 


THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY 419 


rapidly in different sections, in the last two decades. A sur- 
vey by the United States Department of Agriculture found 
256 such structures. Most of them are in small towns, but 
eighty-three are in the open country. ‘These include school, 
church, and fraternal society buildings, but a number of them 
are buildings financed by donations, subscriptions, or tax levies. 
It is unnecessary to list the activities and interests which 
center in these buildings and on their grounds, for every type of 
legitimate activity which may be needed or developed in the 
community where it is located is furnished facilities by these 
halls. Their equipment provides for all sorts of athletic, recre- 
ational, or social meeting. Often, they are manned by a paid 
personnel, and managed by a democratically elected board of 
governors. Boys, girls, adults, and little children find in them 
a home and adequate facilities to satisfy practically all their 
social desires, whether for reading, playing, or working in 
groups of similar desires and interests." 

A quotation from Dr. C. J. Galpin in the preface of one of the 
bulletins setting forth the facts concerning community build- 
ings, indicates that the community building is, for the present, 
the farthest step that has been taken in organizing the rural 
community. He says: 


Two widely diverging and competing points of view in public 
matters have characterized rural life in America for generations. 
The family point of view has led to a struggle among leading 
families for family dominance, while the community point of view, 
tending to weld neighborhood families into an individual whole, has 
led to a common struggle with the forces of nature and with tradi- 
tion and inertia for community control in matters that concern the 
common weal. 

The race between these two types, which we may call the family 
régime and the community régime, has in the last decade gone 
strongly to the community type. So steady, indeed, has been the 
looming of the community that now, while the pure gold of family 
ideals bids fair to be carefully conserved, the spirit of family domi- 


*United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 825, Farmers’ 
Bulletins Nos. 1274 and 1192. 


420 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


nance in rural social life seems likely sooner or later to be merged _ 


into the community spirit.t 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Proceedings, Third National Country Life Conference, “Rural Organization,” 
1920, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1921. 

Hayes, A. W., Rural Community Organization, University of Chicago Press, 
Chicago, Illinois, 1921 

LinpeMAN, E. C., The Community, Association Press, New York, 1921. 

Burr, W., Rural Organization, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1921. 

McCrienanan, B. A., Organizing the Rural Community, The Century Com- 
pany, New York, 1922. 

Sanverson, D., The Farmer and His Community, Harcourt, Brace and Com- 
pany, New York, 1922. 


* Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1192, United States Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C., 1921. 





; 
| 


CHAPTER XIX 
THE FARMER AND HIS TOWN 
WHAT IS THE FARMER'S TOWN 


Growing Town and Country Relationships.—In an earlier 
chapter, the changes that have taken place in town and country 
relationships were indirectly described. It was pointed out 
how the agricultural village, at one time so prevalent in early 
American life, gave way to the isolated farm as a place for 
farm family residence, and how there is now a tendency to re- 
establish some community center to furnish the facilities which 
rural people lack because of their isolation. No new factor in 
the. later period of this change is more important than the in- 
creasing conscious relationships between town and country 
people. The American farmer goes to town now ten times 
where he did not go once two generations ago and the other 
members of the farm family have increased their town con- 
tacts to an even greater extent. The farmer, himself, even in 
pioneer agriculture, was compelled to have some contacts with 
town life, but the other members of the farm family did not 
go to town with him. Now the whole family goes, and the 
younger members of the family go much oftener than does the 
farmer himself. In the growth of commercial agriculture, the 
town has become a necessary and recognized part of rural 
economy. It always has been a part of rural economy but 
until fairly recently the farmer has not recognized this fact. 
The increase in transportation and communication facilities 
has made it easy and inviting for him and his family to use 
the social facilities of the town. 

The town is now the trading center of the farmer. Until 
recently it has been his mail and high-school center. It is his 
banking center, and is growing more and more to be his recre- 
ational, social, and religious center. Many of the crude manu- 

421 


422 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


facturing, refining, and shop processes, which were earlier car- 
ried out on the farm, are now carried on in towns or in large 
cities and the products distributed back to the farm through 
the small town. The small town is universally the assembling 
point for mobilizing farm products for shipment. The de- 
velopment of these activities and processes in town and city has 
had two outstanding results—it has increased the proportion 
of our national population living in urban centers and it has 
increased the contacts between town and country people. 

Town and Country Population.—In 1800, there were only 
five cities in the United States with populations of more than 
10,000 inhabitants. These cities contained less than 4 per cent 
of our national population. In 1920, cities of this size, or 
larger, contained 42.2 per cent of all the people living in the 
United States. According to the United States Census report 
of 1920, 51.4 per cent of our national population lived in urban 
places. This report includes among the rural population all 
the inhabitants of towns of 2,500 population and less. If these 
small towns are classified as urban, we then find that 59.9 per 
cent of our people are living in cities and towns. If unin- 
corporated village centers were to be included, it would be dis- 
covered that more than 60 per cent of the American people 
are living in the urban centers. 

There are four states, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New 
York, and New Jersey, whose urban populations are more than 
75 per cent of their total populations. Rhode Island and 
Massachusetts combined have over 95 per cent of all their 
population living in cities. There are almost twice as many 
people living in greater New York City today as there were in 
the whole United States, not including the Indians, when 
Washington was first elected president. Almost one-seventh 
of all the people of the United States live in eight great cities: 
New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleve- 
land, Boston, and Baltimore. 

The urban population has not only increased more rapidly 
than the rural population but the larger urban centers have in- 
creased more rapidly than the smaller urban centers. Thou- 
sands of small urban centers have actually lost population in 


THE FARMER AND HIS TOWN 423 


the last two decades, and as Professor John Gillette points out, 
the smaller the town the greater the probability of loss.’ 
There has been going on, for a number of decades, a steady 
urbanization of our national population. Farmers and their 
children have been leaving the rural districts for the city. 
Rural contacts with village centers have been increasing and 
the farmer’s relations, directly or through the smaller centers, 
have been increasing with the greater urban centers. 

The Farmers’ Town—The facts related in the previous 
sections of this chapter show conditions which raise a number 
of problems for rural life. The small rural town exists only 
because it is needed by the modern farmer in his work and 
his life. It is the economic and often the social center of his 
activities. There is today no such thing as a rural community 
without its town. The little town exists primarily as a trade 
center for the agricultural population. From seven- to nine- 
tenths of its volume of business develops out of rural needs. 
It survives only on the basis of the service it can render to 
agriculture and agricultural people. Numerous examples of 
its failures to survive when it was not aptly located to serve 
these needs are available. If it has the transportation facil- 
ities for country uses, it becomes a necessity for the farmer. 
If it lacks these facilities, it can not survive in and of itself.* 
The decadence or mortality of rural towns which grew up be- 
fore railroads were constructed has been chiefly, if not wholly, 
due to the fact that many of the towns were inland and 
so were no longer good service agencies for agriculture.® 
The value of the little town to agriculture is indexed by the 
very great number of them in America. As H. P. Douglas 
says, “All countrymen support about as many little towns as 
they can.’ 4 

Of course they do, just as they support as many auto- 

1GueTtTe, J. M., Rural Sociology, pp. 460-474, The Macmillan Company, 
ees P. L., Introduction to Rural Sociology, p. 359, D. Appleton & Com- 
pany, New York, 1917. 

* AnprEWs, C. M., Colonial Folkways, The Chronicles of America Series, 
Vol. IX, Chap. II, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 1919. 


*Dovauas, H. P., The Little Town, p. 28, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1919. 


424 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


mobiles or trucks as they can, or purchase as many acres of 
land as they can pay for and cultivate. The frequency of the 
little town depends upon two things—the prosperity of the 
agricultural community and the presence of railroad facilities; 
and railroad facilities, in the long run, depend upon the agri- 
cultural prosperity of the communities which they serve. The 
little town is scarcely more than a thickly settled and more 
specialized area of the rural community. Many of its economic 
enterprises, such as grain elevators, cooperative creameries and 
cheese factories, banks, and even sometimes stores are owned 
or partly owned by farmers. Looked at from any viewpoint, 
the little town has evolved as a necessary part of the rural 
community. In this sense it belongs to agriculture and to the 
agriculturist. 


URBAN RURAL CONFLICTS 


What the Conflicts Are—Notwithstanding the mutuality 
of interest between the small town and the open country, and 
the essential integrity of the rural community which includes 
both, there has developed a great deal of suspicion and even 
open animosity between the farmer and the trades people. 
The countryman thinks the townsman is “selfish” and the 
townsman thinks the countryman is a “rube.” The townsman 
thinks the countryman is unbusiness-like and the country- 
man thinks the townsman is lazy. The countryman believes 
that the townsman robs him in prices and the townsman thinks 
that the countryman is too parsimonious. The existence of 
such beliefs and feelings has at times created serious conflicts 
and has caused cleavages between these two elements of the 
community which threatened, in extreme cases, to end in 
physical violence. In the Middle West where the Granger 
Movement had its greatest development and where the Non- 
partisan League and other independent political movements 
have been most prevalent, the open conflict has been most pro- 
nounced. In the South where the town merchant quite uni- 
versally finances the farmer a year at a time, and is often the 
landlord of many whom he supplies with goods and credit, the 


THE FARMER AND HIS TOWN 425 


conflict is not so openly expressed. It is possible, however, 
that under such conditions the attitude of suspicion and feel- 
ing of injustice is much more universal and it is quite certain 
that the cleavage between these two classes is much greater. 

The average farmer looks upon the small town as bad or 
evil. He does not desire his sons to frequent the town too 
often. It has been the home of the saloon, the pool hall, the 
public dance hall, the house of ill-fame, and above all is a 
place to squander money. His attitude is often so pronounced 
on the matter that he would almost consent to its complete 
annihilation. The townsman, on the other hand, has quite 
often failed to see that the existence of a prosperous and con- 
tented farm population is essential to his prosperity and even 
to his existence and survival. These attitudes are inimical 
both to town and country and have created a social atmosphere 
that must be dispelled before the larger community, discussed 
in the last chapter, can be created or developed. 

Why the Conflicts Exist—Some indication has been given 
as to why and how conflicts have developed between country- 
men and townsmen. A clear knowledge of the causes of the 
conflicts would eliminate most of them. Conflicts usually de- 
velop either out of competition or misunderstandings, or both. 
Recent cooperative undertakings on the part of farm groups 
have brought the matter of competition clearly to the fore. 
The comparative isolation of the past has made misunder- 
standings, or at least failure to understand, easy. The fol- 
lowing facts are given as the causes of urban-rural conflicts. 

Differences in occupations automatically create different 
modes of thinking. The training necessary to carry on an 
occupation successfully demands that it have pretty much its 
own technique of operation, its own standard and measure- 
ment of efficiency and success, and its own type of mind. 
The farmer’s training has come to him by such a slow and 
easy process of apprenticeship that he scarcely realizes that 
his aptness as a farmer depends to any extent upon training. 
He, therefore, fails to appreciate the fact that skill and 
aptitude are necessary to operate a grocery or a hardware 
store. This fact has been demonstrated quite tragically in the 


426 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


case of farmer’s cooperative enterprises that have failed be- 
cause of the poor management furnished them by farm man- 
agers. Because the farmer does not appreciate the training 
and the skill necessary to conduct even a small store suc- 
cessfully, he discounts the worth of the village storekeeper 
and objects to the profits that he makes. Furthermore, the 
farmer for generations has had to deal very little in prices 
and profits. Huis criteria of suecess have been the successful 
conduct of a practically self-sufficient farm through the cycle 
of one year at a time and one year after another. He has 
produced on his own farm a large proportion of the goods 
which have gone into his standard of living, and has handled 
comparatively little money. This small amount of money has 
naturally gone a long way and he, therefore, thinks that the 
man who handles much money is growing unduly rich at the 
expense of the farmer with whom he deals. 

The city man, on the other hand, trained in price and 
market operation, used to paying for everything, and selling 
everything which he handles on an accounting basis, does not 
appreciate either the parsimony of the farmer or his suspicion 
of all price dealings. Furthermore, not knowing the great 
amount of skill which the farmer must have successfully to 
operate a farm, and being used to altogether different criteria 
of crafts, he greatly discounts the ability and even the mental- 
ity of the farmer. The failure of these two differently occupied 
men to understand each the worth of the other is probably 
the greatest cause of mutual distrust and lack of appreciation. 

Differences in standards of living between urban and rural 
people are, while very real, even more apparent than real. 
The country person sees the short working hours, the cleaner 
clothes, the better homes, schools, and churches of the city; 
sees the city person enjoy the facilities of electric lights, 
sidewalks, municipal water, and sewer systems; observes city 
children idle or at play; and knows that most of these op- 
portunities and facilities are not his to enjoy. He, therefore, 
rebels against his condition and either by some peculiar psy- 
chology of his own, or by imputing it to the injustice of eco- 
nomic distribution, holds the city inhabitant responsible for 


THE FARMER AND HIS TOWN 427 


the differences. The city person, on the other hand, sees the 
farmer living without these facilities, and imputes to him a 
lack of urbanity, civility, and culture. This provokes the 
farmer even more than his own lack of facilities and so as- 
sists in creating mutual misunderstanding, distrust and even 
conflict. 

City attitudes held by town people often lead them to 
class themselves as thoroughgoing urbanites, whereas, in fact, 
their mode of life is much more like that of the people of the 
adjacent country districts than it is like that of metropolitan 
centers. In even a small town there are people of various oc- 
cupations and professions and, therefore, a cosmopolitanism 
which does not exist in the open country. The little town 
reaches down to the farmer with one hand and up to the city 
with the other. ‘The countryman can avail himself only of the 
contacts of his own people and those of the little town. The 
townsman is conscious of these advantages, looks upon them 
as a part of all cities, whether great or small, and as cultural 
opportunities which country people neither have nor appreci- 
ate. He, therefore, considers himself urban, civil, polite, cos- 
mopolitan, and even metropolitan. These attitudes he freely 
displays to country people, particularly in social affairs, and 
by so doing contributes nothing by way of mutual understand- 
ing and social facility. 

The concentration of wealth in cities has resulted more 
or less naturally from the concentration of economic and in- 
dustrial processes there. This wealth in the cities is in the 
hands of comparatively few families, but these are the very 
families with whom the farmer deals—the bankers, merchants, 
and traders—and it is their homes and their social status that 
catch his attention and imagination. This magnifies his con- 
viction that the city is robbing the country and that urban 
people very little appreciate the difficulties of his labors or the 
handicaps of his conditions of living. His conviction that these 
people are an index to a great economic injustice may be 
perfectly justifiable but the city manual laborers and wage 
workers share the handicaps of life with him and so place the 
issue on a different plane than urban-rural differences. 


428 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


The existence of industrial groups, even in small towns, 
sometimes introduces an element into city population which 
is related to agriculture only remotely. These processes and 
the people engaged in them widen the differences between 
town and country people and town and country interests and 
thereby lessen the ‘‘consciousness of kind” which exists in 
towns devoid of these elements. 

The purely commercial interests of some small trading 
centers make of them anomalies in rural life. The rural 
community has not practiced commercialism to any consider- 
able degree until recently, and any agency or institution that 
lives by commercial criteria alone impresses it as greedy and 
even immoral. The rural community may have had com- 
paratively poor institutional facilities but all of its institutions 
and the values which they represent have been woven deeply 
into rural people’s lives. The pure trade attitude and the 
dominance of trade values to the exclusion of all other values, 
“rub the farmer the wrong way,’ and cause him to discount 
the tradesman along with his interests and criteria of values. 

The economic influences of more removed urban centers 
which are reflected in the business practices of the small towns- 
man often force him into attitudes and unwelcome relation- 
ships with his farmer constituents. The farmer has for 
many years believed that “Wall Street” is his arch enemy. 
This belief is largely due to his failure to understand the place 
and operation of Wall Street in the business world, but this 
name is, nevertheless, an index to real forces which operate in 
the relation of town and country dealers to the detriment of 
mutual understanding and harmony between them. The 
“soricultural paper’ of the farmer is discounted in the larger 
city banks; the standardized wholesale prices, and often the 
designated retail prices, of the city manufacturers are relayed 
down to the farmer. The town business man is forced into 
standardized business practices with his overhead city whole- 
saler and banker, and he naturally has a tendency to carry these 
practices down to his dealings with the farmer. The farmer 
does not conduct his own affairs or his business relations with 
his neighbors in this fashion, and so resents being forced into 


THE FARMER AND HIS TOWN 429 


these relations with his merchant and his banker. Further- 
more, there is little doubt that many country merchants and 
bankers have used overhead city pressure as an excuse for in- 
creasing their own profits and exploiting the farmer who does 
not know the facts in the case. 


A growing class consciousness on the part of farm people 
has resulted from a belief in the differences between themselves 
and city people. This class consciousness has been magnified 
by an increasing knowledge of the common interests of farm 
people and the part that farming and farm people play in 
world economy. The result has been an attempt on their 
part to take over many of the commercial functions which 
they believe have been manipulated by others to their detri- 
ment. In the organization of such enterprises, discussion of 
their “plight” has become widespread and sometimes ex- 
tremely bitter. Professional, or at least overly ardent, 
agitators have fed the flames of discontent and graphically 
pictured the differences between the economic and social 
status of city and country people. Out of these agitations grew 
the “Free Soil,” “Populist,” and “Independent” parties, and 
the Non-partisan League, in which the farmers have partici- 
pated heavily. City populations and city vested interests have 
belittled practically all cooperative efforts on the part of 
farmers and have often struck back viciously at their attempts 
to enter the commercial and political arenas. These attitudes 
and activities on the part of city peoples and city interests 
have deeply embittered many farmers and although they have 
failed in many of their commercial and political undertakings, 
they retain a suspicion and a resentment of city ways more 
marked than have resulted from any other cause we have 
described. 


URBAN AND RURAL COOPERATION 


Unconscious Cooperation—That the city and the rural 
populations are both essential to our national economy is 
patent. That the small town and the farmer are a unit in this 


430 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


economy is just as patent a fact to the person who lives in a 
great metropolitan center. Such a person looks at these two 
groups as one. It is all just the “country” to him. For pur- 
poses of civic improvement, the small town must, as an in- 
corporated area, act independently. For the sake of an ade- 
quate country life or an efficient little town the two must © 
work together. As H. P. Douglas says in his book, ‘The Little 
Town:” 


The little town is the primary trade center. The town’s country 
is the area which trades with it; which makes common cause with 
it in buying and selling, in credit and transportation facilities. Its 
typical functionaries are the retail merchant, the middleman—who 
takes the farmer’s produce and turns it over to the city for con- 
sumption—the banker, the postmaster, and the railway and express 
agents. The town’s country is the area which comes to it for play, 
education, and worship. Here are the country’s moving pictures, 
its baseball diamonds, and its Chautauquas. The little town is the 
farmer’s school of fashion and of social propriety. The more 
radically the little town adopts the independent point of view, the 
more adequately may it return later to a comprehension of its chief 
task: namely, the service of the open country on which it depends. 
After all, this is its largest task. The material (and sound) for- 
tunes of the little town and the open country are identical; their 
achievements should be common. To fulfil its reasonable service 
the little town must appreciate and love the country. 


When Mr. Douglas speaks of the little town becoming inde- 
pendent, he is speaking of independence in relation to larger 
urban centers and urban attitudes. 

The little town cannot arbitrarily become the center of an 
agricultural community, nor can the agricultural population 
arbitrarily choose some town as a center for all its economic 
and social activities. Institutions, agencies, and relationships 
of long standing, on the part of both town and country, have 
developed which will persist in the face of all needs for ideal 
community relationships. Churches, schools, country stores, 


“Quoted from Haysgs, A. W., “Some Factors in Town and Country Relation- 


ships,” Research Bulletin, Tulane University, New Orleans Louisiana; Doua.as, 
H. P., The Little Town, pp. 10, 53, and 54. 


THE FARMER AND HIS TOWN 431 


small towns, and large cities will compete with the most ideally 
located and perfectly equipped rural town. Manufacturers, 
national trade associations, and overhead church organizations 
will persist in influencing adversely the location and practices 
of many of the institutions and service agencies which under an 
ideal arrangement would adjust themselves perfectly to a well- 
ordered and organized rural community and its town center. 
These matters, like all social adjustments, must work them- 
selves out by experiment, elimination, and survival. 

Just how thoroughgoing the unconscious cooperation of the 
country and the rural town is has been demonstrated by a 
number of recent studies of town and country relationship. 
These relationships have grown up and become institutional- 
ized in rural communities. The town comes to be the center 
for service agencies for the surrounding country. It furnishes 
agencies in varying degrees—buying, selling, financing, educa- 
tion, religion, recreation, and social associations. The order 
in which these functions center in the town are, first and most 
universally, finance; second, selling; third, buying; fourth, 
recreation; fifth, education, particularly high school educa- 
tion; sixth, religion; and seventh, practical social association.1 
Where the town is too small it fails to supply all of these 
services and is, therefore, less a center of the community than 
where it does provide all of them. Where it is large enough to 
take on metropolitan ways, and thus to develop these services 
primarily for its own industrial, business, and professional 
population, it loses, at least relatively, its capacity to be a 
service center for farmers. In the case of the town that is 
too small, below 1,000 in population, for instance, the country 
people find it necessary to go beyond it to larger urban centers 
to satisfy many of their needs. Where it is too large, 15,000 


1See Hayes, A. W., “Some Factors in Town and Country Relations,” Re- 
search Bulletin, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana; Kors, J. H., 
“Service Relations of Town and Country,” Research Bulletin No. 58; and 
“Rural Primary Groups,” Research Bulletin No. 51, Agricultural Experiment 
Station, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; ZIMMERMAN, C. C., and 
Taytor, Caru C., “Rural Organization,” Bulletin No. 245, North Carolina Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, Raleigh, North Carolina; Gatpin, C. J., “The 
Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community,” Research Bulletin, No. 34, 

*'This, of course, varies with different sections of the country. 


432 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


to 20,000 in population, although it is thoroughly equipped 
with service agencies, the country people are too much in the 
minority and so construct their social institutions in the open 
country or smaller urban centers. Professor Hayes says: 


. . . As we descend from the small city to the cross-roads store, 
we find the farmer figuring more and more in the make-up of the 
town, in both its business and social life; but, while he gains in 
interest and in numbers he loses in opportunities for the higher 
choices and standards available, and in the diversity of institutions. 
The substance of it all is, the farmer feels ‘‘at home” in the small 
centers and does not in the city.t 


In Louisiana, Professor Hayes found that the social rela- 
tionships of town and country people were much more prey- 
alent in a town of 500 population, which he studied, than 
they were in the three towns of over 3,000 population which 
he studied. In Wisconsin, Professor Kolb found that, while 
“nearness” was given as the most universal cause that farmers 
gave for their contacts with any given town rather than some 
cther, it is the town between 2,500 and 3,000 population that 
constitutes the most apt center of service agencies for the 
surrounding country. In some of the most prosperous agri- 
cultural areas of the Middle West, towns of 4,000 and 5,000 
population are undoubtedly the most universally used and 
the most universally recognized service and social centers of 
the agricultural community. In New England many larger 
cities furnish the facilities. In some of the negro and tenant- 
populated areas of the South the much smaller towns serve 
these classes and the larger towns serve the land owners. 

The points we are attempting to emphasize in this section 
are that the rural town has unconsciously become an integral 
and functioning part of the rural community, and that in each 
area of the nation there is a type of rural town that best 
serves the farmers as an economic and social center. It is, 
furthermore, quite surely true that a reintegration of rural- 
urban relationships is gradually working its way out which will 
establish the most aptly located and better equipped towns as 

1 Ibid, p. 44. 


THE FARMER AND HIS TOWN 433 


the service and social centers of rural communities and min- 
imize, or possibly ultimately completely eliminate, many 
smaller urban centers now in existence. This will have to be 
a matter of unconscious adjustment and survival, for the 
institutionalization of old relationships will not give way just 
yet to a consciously planned arrangement. 

The Need for Planned Cooperation—The frictions and 
conflicts between townsmen and countrymen have been a good 
while in developing. The consciousness of the mutuality of 
their interests and a technique of cooperation will also probably 
come slowly. We have seen that these things exist already to 
a considerable degree. They can and should be consciously 
encouraged and developed. Chambers of Commerce and civic 
clubs should recognize the farmer as a member of the business 
and civic community which they represent and seek to serve. 
The farmer often furnishes the majority of the volume of 
business done in the small town. He and his business interests 
should be represented in and served by these organizations. 
Various attempts have been made to accomplish this fact, 
but only very limited success has been achieved as yet. Too 
often the chamber of commerce is little more than a “Related 
Merchants Association,’ concerned chiefly with credit rating, 
closing hours, and price fixing. A broader view of its place 
in the community would lead it to see that the life and pros- 
perity of business in a rural town depend upon the prosperity 
of the farmers, and would thus lead it into a knowledge of the 
need for farmer representation in its membership. In the 
towns studied by Hayes, in Louisiana, he found that the city 
of Alexandria, a city of 20,000 population, with a member- 
ship in its Chamber of Commerce of 552, had only twelve 
farmer members, although this organization has conducted a 
definite campaign for farmer membership. Alexandria is one 
of the nationally known small cities because of its attempt to 
vision the agricultural area as part of the community which it 
serves. The Rotary Club with a membership of ninety has 
no farmers and the Kiwanis Club with a membership of sixty 
has only two farmer members. The Oakdale Chamber of 
Commerce with 142 members has only one farmer member. 


434 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


This town of 8,000 population has no active program of co- 
operation with rural interest, although the Chamber of Com- 
merce does foster boys’ and girls’ club work and agricultural 
fairs. 

In cooperative enterprises, whether corporate or purely eo- 
operative, the rural town can well afford to take a sympathetic 
and helpful attitude. In Denmark, where agricultural co- 
operation has been developing for seventy years, the towns 
have learned that it is not essential that the middlemen and 
the farmers be completely separate groups. The townspeople 
at first bitterly opposed the establishment of farmers’ coopera- 
tive enterprises in the towns, sometimes even refusing them 
the right to locate within the town limit.2, Now, in a number 
of Denmark towns, the banks, stores, manufacturing, whole- 
sale and retail businesses are operated by the farmers, and 
the towns are more prosperous than they formerly were. The 
bitterest opposition to farmers’ cooperative marketing in 
America has often come from their own townspeople. Farmer 
stockholders in town stores, banks, and other business enter- 
prises would do much to eliminate the mutual distrust of 
town and country people. It has done so in numerous rural 
towns of America. 

The establishment of rural institutions in the smaller 
towns is desirable from many points of view. The public 
service facilities, water, light, and sewage equipment are then 
available. The coming and going of rural children and their 
constant mingling with young people who live in the town 
create a subtle confidence that is very difficult to establish 
in pure trade relationships. Kolb found, in Wisconsin, in 
answer to the question, “Where does the farmer prefer to have 
his social institutions located?” that the young people’s pref- 
erence for the town greatly exceeded that of the older people. 
In all cases he found that the preference for town location of 
the church and school was from two to three times that for 
country location. Before the school can be located in the town 

* Tbid. 
*Faser, H., Cooperation in Denmark Agriculture, pp. 55-70, Longmans, 
Green & Co., London, 1918. 


Ot ee Se 


| 


THE FARMER AND HIS TOWN 435 


center, however, there must be developed, on the part of both 
the town and the country people, a willingness to enlarge the 
school district to include the country area which it should 
serve. At the present time the farmer often objects to having 
his property listed in such a district because of the higher tax 
rate and his children are, therefore, admitted to the town high 
school only on the courtesy of the town school board, often by 
paying a prescribed tuition fee. 

Making the Town a Part of the Rural Life Movement.— 
Even national leaders of rural life movements have failed to 
give due consideration to the place of the rural town in the 
rural community. Up to the present time the small town has 
been a sort of “no man’s land.” It is not recognized by the 
great urban centers as belonging to them, and it is not recog- 
nized by rural people as belonging to them. The big city is 
right in its attitude, but the rural people are wrong in theirs. 
The rural town now is, and always has been, a part of the 
rural community. It is time to recognize the fact and defi- 
nitely plan its place, function, and life as a part of the social 
structure of every rural community. 


THE RURAL TOWN ITSELF 


As a Social Entity —The small town, classified by the fed- 
eral census as a part of the rural population, has a corporate 
entity of its own. In a discussion of rural welfare and rural 
efficiency, it has a right to consideration. It will, in many 
ways, serve its own interests best by serving the interest of 
the farming enterprise and the rural life about it, but it must 
also be interested in its own body, mind, and soul. Small 
towns have been built, in a great many instances, because 
they are thought to be better places in which to live than the 
open country. Are they? Too often the town has paid little 
attention to putting itself in a position to answer this question 
in the affirmative. It is an incorporated place with legal power 
to develop the kind of life it wants. Many rural towns, how- 
ever, are more interested in becoming industrial centers than 
they are in becoming wholesome residential places. Their 


436 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


chambers of commerce and civic clubs strive to locate factories 
and mills within their borders, and by so doing often intro- 
duce into their midst people and problems that they are ill 
equipped to care for. Real estate enthusiasts boom the town 
to its own future detriment. The mortality of business, rec- 
reational, and social enterprises in small towns is tragic and 
chiefly due to overwrought enthusiasm for size or to the ab- 
sence of planning for a common civic life. 

A small town must provide all the institutions and agencies 
essential to supplying the elements in its standard of living. 
It, therefore, has as a part of its life all the problems con- 
nected with food supplies, housing, health, education, religion, 
recreation, and social contacts. In addition to providing these 
things for its own residents, it is the custodian and trustee of 
these institutions and agencies while they perform their func- 
tions for others. It is not our purpose to discuss in detail the 
social structure, social agencies, and social problems of the 
rural town but only to give a brief picture of its outstanding 
problems. 

The Town’s Houses.—With all the lack of housing facilities 
of the open country and all the congestion of large cities, 
neither of these works for good housing under such great 
handicaps as do many small towns. This is particularly true 
when the town is too small and too poor to provide public 
utilities to furnish adequate sewage, sludge and garbage dis- 
posal facilities, or a municipal water supply. Fire protection 
is very poor in the small villages, and opportunities for con- 
flagrations more plentiful than in the open country. The small 
town practically never has a housing code, and persons are, 
therefore, allowed to live in any sort of a residence without 
legal restrictions or supervision. Residences are often in con- 
junction with places of business, stores, garages, and the like, 
which not only crowd the family into narrow quarters but re- 
strict the yard space. In the case of the house-garage com- 
bination there is a great danger of fire. There are no restric- 
tions on the keeping of poultry and livestock on the small- 
town premises. This offers an occasion for the accumulation 
of filth, and the breeding of flies and disease germs. Many 


THE FARMER AND HIS TOWN 437 


small-town residences are not owned by the people who live 
in them, and are allowed to fall into disrepair by those who 
own them because of little likelihood that they will ever be 
valuable properties. The fact that the small town is more 
than likely static or decreasing in population offers little in- 
centive for the improvement of residential property. As a 
whole, the very small town home has all of the disadvantages 
of the country isolated residence with none of its advantages of 
space and absence of menace of other residences. 

The Town’s Health and Sanitation.—The sanitary condi- 
tions of a rural town have a double significance—a significance 
for the people who live in the town and a significance for the 
people who trade in the town. Milk and other foods are dis- 
tributed from common centers, and provisions for sanitation 
and cleanliness are often inadequate for handling these sup- 
plies. If the town has a municipal water supply, it is a pos- 
sible source of insanitation and diseases. Slaughter yards, 
dumping grounds, or other civic nuisances are very prevalent 
in small towns. The open privy, the open sewer, and the cess- 
pool are common. Many times, private residences provide 
themselves water from surface wells. If a stream or a rail- 
road passes through the town, it becomes a place for the 
dumping of old cans which contain decaying vegetable matters, 
the stream often being converted into an open sewer. Ty- 
phoid, diarrhcea, and dysentery are largely spread by polluted 
water. The town’s alleys are universally rubbish-accumulating 
places. Disease-spreading insects are plentiful for two rea- 
sons; they find apt breeding grounds, and the greater number 
of people offer a greater number of human hosts to carry them. 
Horse manure and other animal débris accumulate because of 
the presence of many animals in the town. As H. P. Douglas 
Says: 


The sanitation of the open country was bad enough, but the 
little town without the country’s habits and without the city’s 
remedies may easily be the most dangerous place of all. 


The Town’s Morals.—To quote Mr. Douglas again, there are 
two quite universal opinions about the little town, namely: 


438 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


“The little town is ugly and the little town is bad.” Or, to 
quote another common saying, “God made the open country; 
man made the great city; but the devil made the little town.” 
The little town is not a neighborhood, nor is it a metropolitan 
center. It, therefore, lacks the stern ethics and morals of the 
country neighborhood and lacks the laws, police regulation, 
and constructive social agencies of the great city. Town chil- 
dren are not under as close parental supervision as country 
children are, and they do not have chores and helpful family 
and farm tasks to consume their idle time. The result is that 
play often degenerates into marauding and even vice. The 
average rural village has its “hangers on,” in the way of idle 
or semi-idle people, who frequent common meeting places and 
are anything but constructive elements in the town’s mental 
and social life. Social status is more clearly marked in small 
towns than in the open country and the opportunities for 
developing invidious attitudes and false values of human 
worth are plentiful. The joker, the cheap show, the street 
carnival, and other traveling recreational and social parasites 
frequent the rural town. The tramp, the vagrant, the hood- 
lum, the prostitute, and the petty thief find lodgement in the 
town “lock-up” and become objects of morbid curiosity and 
idle talk. Unless carefully guarded against, some “hold-out” 
becomes a place for petty gambling, drinking, and indecent 
conversation. The small town need not always be bad but the 
opportunities for evil are there, and in the absence of construc- 
tive social agencies are likely to develop into reality. 

The Town Eyesores.—We have already mentioned the dump 
heap, the open sewer, the alley, and the privy. To these should 
be added unsightly billboards, tumble-down buildings, un- 
cleaned and unorganized streets, barren school yards, church- 
yards and court-house yards, railroad entrances, and the open 
spaces allowed to grow up in weeds. The little town need not 
be ugly, but in the absence of town planning and civic organi- 
zation its opportunities to be unsightly often develop into 
real ugliness. 

Town Planning.—lf the country town were converted into a 
civic and social center for the whole agricultural community 


THE FARMER AND HIS TOWN 439 


of which it is a part, it might easily be not only more pros- 
perous but more beautiful, more constructively organized, and 
better managed. It might also develop a degree of pride and 
self-respect which it can never obtain so long as it is “No 
man’s land.” What it needs is a consciousness of its civic 
entity and of its economic and social functions. If it were to 
be planned and managed as the social center of the agricul- 
tural community, its rural constituents would no longer look 
upon it as an anomaly in their midst. It would be the home 
of their school, church, park, and playground—the capital of 
their community. A community planning commission would 
eliminate the eyesores. A set of civic clubs and organizations 
would eliminate its insanitary and immoral elements, and a 
consciousness of its economic and social worthiness would 
make of it a well-organized and ordered element in the social 
structure of the rural community. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Dovatas, H. P., The Little Town, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1919. 

FAnveELL, P. T., Village Improvement, The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1918. 

Proceedings, Fourth National Country Life Association, 1921, University of 
Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 

Kos, J. H., “Service Relations of Town and Country,” Research Bulletin No. 
58, Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 
Wisconson. 

Hayes, A. W., “Some Factors in Town and Country Relationships,” Re- 
search Bulletin, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Guerre, J. M., Rural Sociology, Chaps. XXI and XXII, The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1922. 


CHAPTER XX 
THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 
FARMERS AND POLITICAL ACTION 


Why We Have no Agrarian Party in the United States.— 
There is no institution which influences the average man and 
in which he participates constantly, of which he is less con- 
scious than the institution of government. For this reason, 
people who take a lively interest in other major activities of 
life quite universally neglect larger civic issues. This is more 
true in the United States than in the older nations of Western 
civilization. So far as the farming class is concerned, it is 
more true of the United States than it is of Canada. We have 
no recognized agrarian political party in the United States. 
It is doubtful whether we yet have a class-conscious agrarian 
group which is of any representative magnitude. For this 
reason, American farmers, as a class, do not have the clear- 
cut political influence they do in some other countries. 

In practically our whole national political history, party 
alignment has been based upon a bi-party system. Blocs, 
representing major economic, religious, or other classes, have 
never become a part of our scheme of political compe- 
tition. We have no hereditary social classes. Our popu- 
lation is, and practically always has been, heterogeneous. Our 
occupational groups have been in flux. Our whole body of 
economie, social, and political tradition has been based upon a 
philosophy of competition, equality, and individual inde- 
pendence. We have not thought, until very recently, of a 
labor group, a scholastic group, or an agrarian group. The 
natural result is that farmers, like practically all others of our 
citizenry, have followed old political loyalties rather than 
created a political class group of their own. 

Tendencies toward Agrarian Politics—Although we do not 

440 


THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 441 


have and never have had, an agrarian political party in the 
United States, the farmers of the nation, several times in our 
national history, have made their demands and influences felt 
by means of direct organized political activity. The Grange, 
the Agricultural Wheel, and the Farmers’ Alliance influenced 
state and national legislation mightily during the early seven- 
ties, late eighties, and early nineties. The Farmers’ Union, 
the American Society of Equity, the Non-Partisan League, 
and the Farm-Labor party since 1900 have wielded consider- 
able, though spasmodic, political influence in a number of 
states, and even in the nation. There has probably never 
been a time in our national life when the farmers’ voice has 
been more eagerly and earnestly listened to than just now. 
The last two presidents of the United States have appointed 
Agricultural Commissions to study agrarian problems and 
recommend agrarian policies. A number of large farmer or- 
ganizations have national legislative representatives and 
legislative committees constantly at work. Since 1920, Con- 
gress has passed a great number of acts which have sought to 
offer aid and assistance to the agricultural interests. Presi- 
dents, governors, and national and state legislators make agri- 
cultural planks a part of their platforms. A number of farm 
organizations have recently demanded and accomplished ap- 
pointment or election of “dirt farmers” on government boards. 
A recent, rather detailed, study of farmers in politics indi- 
cates a tendency, consciously or unconsciously, for farmers to 
show some unanimity in political attitudes and activities.’ 
This study shows a definite correlation between political in- 
surgency and dominant ruralism. All of the eighteen states 
except three, which in this study are classed as insurgents, are 
among the thirty-three whose population at the time of the 
1920 census enumeration was 50 per cent or more rural.” 
In Pennsylvania, in 1922, Governor Pinchot received his 
strongest support from the farmer sections of the state. His 
previous connection with rural interest was no doubt a con- 


Rice, 8. A., Farmers and Workers in American Politics, Studies in History, 
Economics, and Public Law, Vol., CIII, No. 2 (whole number 253) Columbia 
University, Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1924. 

* Ibid, pp., 50-51 


442 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


tributing cause of this fact. In the state of Washington, in 
1920, the farmers joined with other progressive groups in a 
united political program. In Wisconsin, in 1920, the Non- 
Partisan League and Society of Equity, both chiefly farmer 
organizations, threw their strength to Governor Blaine. The 
Blaine proportion of the total vote was 29 per cent in the 
Republican primary, but was 38.8 per cent for the unin- 
corporated areas of the state. In Minnesota, the Farmer- 
Labor party has elected two United States’ senators. Here 
again the unincorporated (rural) areas gave Shipstead 57.4 
per cent of vote in 1922, whereas his proportion for the whole 
state was only 45.5 per cent. Political campaigns and elections 
in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska, for the 
period from 1919 to 1922, show the same tendency on the part 
of the farmers to cast their votes for farmer causes and candi- 
dates with considerable unanimity.’ 

Outstanding Examples of Farmers’ Orgamzed Political Ac- 
tivity.— There have been times in the American history when 
the farmers have arisen to such heights of political agitation 
as to constitute state and national political upheavals. Out- 
standing examples are the Granger era of the early seventies, 
the Populist Movement of the late eighties and early nineties, 
the Non-Partisan League of the second half of the last decade, 
the Farm Bloc of 1921 and the Farmer-Labor groups since 
1920. The Grange was the first of these in time. The Farmers’ 
Alliance was the greatest in membership magnitude, and its 
political concomitant—the Populist party—was the greatest 
in political magnitude. 

The Grange (Patrons of Husbandry) was organized in 1867 
as a farmers’ fraternal organization. It gained very little head- 
way until 1871 when it took a severe economic turn. From 
this direction it went rapidly into politics. Between 1872 and 
1875, the Grangers became the dominant political influence 
in a half-dozen states. They elected a large enough per cent 
of the state legislatives in Illinois and Iowa to control the 
general assemblies of those two states. This farmers’ organi- 
zation threw its influence behind the Reform, Independent, 


*Ibid, pp. 150-175, 


THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 443 


and Anti-monopoly parties in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, 
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, California, and Ore- 
gon. The Grangers, through these parties or otherwise, elected 
legislators, governors, and other state officers. In the state of 
Illinois, they defeated a chief justice who had declared some 
granger legislation unconstitutional, and elected in his stead 
a judge who they believed would be sympathetic with the 
program which they were attempting to write into law.) 

There were some thirty outstanding political issues which 
the Grange sponsored in the various states or in the nation at 
large. Some of these were purely local and comparatively 
trivial. Others were of deepest concern to the enterprise of 
farming and to the well-being of the rural population. Out- 
standing among the issues of serious rural significance were, 
regulation of the railroads, establishing of state boards of 
agriculture, ample appropriations for state colleges of agri- 
culture, compulsory education, development of water trans- 
portation, establishment of a Federal Bureau of Agriculture, 
improvement of the weather bureau, national regulation of 
weights and measures, and commercial treaties which would 
open world markets for agricultural products. By no means 
all of the issues and policies raised and fostered by the Grangers 
resulted in legislative accomplishment. The data are pre- 
sented here chiefly to show that the farmers did organize for 
a half decade sufficiently effectually to wield political in- 
fluence and accomplish some political results. 

The Farmers’ Alliance created a greater political upheaval in 
some ways than did the Grange. By combining three large 
farmers’ organizations, the Texas Farmers Alliance, The 
Louisiana Farmers Union, and The Arkansas Agricultural 
Wheel, and working in political harmony with the Northwest- 
ern Alliance, it swept into its ranks probably three million 
farmers. This consolidated rural constituency was, in a num- 
ber of states, the heart of the Populist Movement of the late 
eighties and early nineties. The Populist party, in 1896, was 
far from being merely an agrarian party but it and its fore- 


Buck, 8., The Granger Movement, Chaps. IV, V, and VI, Harvard Uni- 
versity Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1913. 


444 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


runners were widely supported by the farmers. The Union- 
Labor ticket, in 1888, received its chief support from Mid- 
Western states.1. The People’s party, in 1892, received almost 
the unanimous support of both the Southern Alliance and 
Northwestern Alliance. ‘‘Sockless” Jerry Simpson and W. A. 
Peffer, Kansas farmers, were sent to Congress. In a number 
of Southern states the farmers literally took over the Demo- 
cratic party machinery. In other Southern and some Mid- 
Western states they fused with the minority party. In a few 
of the Mid-western and Western states they formed Inde- 
pendent parties. In the 1896 presidental campaign, large 
elements of all these political forces came together on the 
“Free silver’ issue and went down to defeat, and practical 
extinction with it. | 

The Farmers’ Alliance, like the Grange, by its constitution, 
forbid partisan political activity by its organized member- 
ship or even partisan political discussion in its meetings. But 
like the Grange also it wielded a wide, though temporary, in- 
fluence in state and national politics. It passed resolutions 
definitely stating its platform. It made specific “demands” 
of state and national legislatures. It circulated question- 
naires among candidates in order to ascertain before election 
day where those offering themselves for office stood on the is- 
sues with which the Alliance was concerned. In some states, 
the Alliance organized for political action quite directly and 
placed Alliance members on the fusion or Populist tickets and 
elected them to office. 

Probably the best known, because the most recent, political 
upheaval caused by organized farmers, is the Non-Partisan 
League. It arose in North Dakota, in 1915, was avowedly 
political in its purposes, and in less than six months after its 
organization had a membership of 20,000. Before its decline it 
was organized in thirteen states and had a membership of 
almost 235,000 farmers. It operated upon the basis of a 
definite, paid membership and non-partisan platform. Its 
plan of operation was to select candidates who would promise 


*Buck, 8., The Agrarian Crusade, p. 127, Yale University Press, New 
Haven, Connecticut, 1921. 





THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 445 


to support farm measures and to throw its political strength 
into the election in behalf of these men. In the fall of 1916, 
it elected eighty-one of the one hundred and sixteen members 
to the lower house and eighteen of the twenty-two senators in 
North Dakota. At that same election it elected the governor 
and all other state officials except one. In the election of 1918 
it elected its entire ticket.1 The League wielded an influence 
in other states. 

The Farmer-Labor party is the most recent definitely organ- 
ized political effort on the part of farmers. It is a collation 
between farmers and industrial workers, and thus is not a 
purely agrarian political organization. On the other hand, the 
farmer-labor vote by no means represented all of the agrarian 
vote, which was more or less unified in the national election of 
1924. The Farmer-Labor party, as a national force has never 
risen to any particular significance. Like the Non-Partisan 
League, it centered in the middle Northwest. It placed a 
presidental candidate in the field of 1920. He polled 265,411 
popular votes but no electoral votes that year. In 1924, con- 
siderable attempt was made to mobilize the discontent of the 
farmers under the banner of the Farmer-Labor party. This 
was not accomplished. Instead, the forces scattered, and later 
mobilized to some extent under the La Follette banner. The 
La Follette support was by no means all agrarian. In a great 
majority of the states where the vote for his electors was of 
any appreciable magnitude, however, it was agrarian. There 
were fourteen states in which more than 20 per cent of the 
total vote was cast for the La Follette electors. Eleven of these 
states are dominantly rural, having from 51 to 79 per cent 
of their population living in the open country or in towns of 
2,500 population or less. Table 58 gives the itemized facts 
for these fourteen states: 

The Farmers and Natwonal Political Parties—There has 
never been what could be considered a farmers’ political party 
in the United States. From what has already been said, how- 

1Gaston, H. E., The Non-Partisan League, Harcourt, Brace and Howe 


Company; Brucs, A. A., The Non-Partisan League, The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1921. Re 


446 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


Taste 58.—Strates In Wuicuh Morr Tuan 20 Per CENT OF THE POPULAR 
Vote Was Cast ror La Fouurrre Evectors In 1924! 





Per Cent 
Per Cent of States 
State of Total Population 
Vote that is 
Radical 
VATIZOTIE Ee Ce Ait ee UR, OFA eccee tA Le iA eee ator ae 23.3 78.3 
GalifOrmia ie OL aA a Ge ee RING TUE ae eT Se 33.1 32.0? 
Colorado ed Gis hs thes ee « OR Ue Shale ah wana ee 20.4 51.8 
LRH OU Ee RoE re eh eokhe oe ats, Ceres 6 aimee Begs 36.2 (28 
Thinoig yor CA Re ote he ec eet eee eats ets oe tee OR ee 21.1 By Ay 
| aye Wt Re eke Wd eave eas ALL RUN TE AN is Sah Ae 2564 53.6 
Mon tanace) Dow sree teeters NE tine. mai hen tay 37.6 68.7 
NeDraskaieun wots tie eit wete nts ea C eines Rereies 20.0 68.7 
Nevada it ieet snore ae Mt ie cate wer haere erie 36.4 80.3 
CEO Le Phe hel ake ale aD es denier en ee ites ee 24.3 50.1 
RES Uh ee alii dk oe ROR LOTT Ee Lik Tae eee kee Bale 20.8 §2.0 
Washington Ot eck sleet abate 2 6 ptinte Rieter nae 35.7 44.8 
WiSCOnSine e 8 1h ein ate arets ALL EM ernie Galen Laeger este 53.8 52.7 
PW VOULIDG ho Ura us CtE ROS nuh laut ce lee Ue ay Be alee 21.6 70.5 


ever, it is apparent that large blocs of farmers have, at dif- 
ferent periods in our national life, thrown their support to 
some party which they thought represented their viewpoints 
and would fight for their causes. Since no one of these parties 
has ever been a purely Agrarian party, however, it is not pos- 
sible to calculate just what portion of their strength came 
from their farmer constituency and what portion from other 
constituencies. Table 59 lists the parties to which a goodly 
number of farmers have attached themselves in the last 
seventy-five years: 

It should not be assumed from a study of the table just 
given, that these were agrarian parties. The table is presented 
to show the recurrent tendency for farmers to attain a slight 
degree of political unity. The Greenback party, from 1876 to 
1884, did, without question, catch considerable of the farm 
constituency which had been represented in the independent 
parties of the Granger era. The People’s party, from 1892 to 
1908, was more represented by Farmers’ Alliance influence 


1World Almanac 1926, p. 816, New York World, New York, 1926. 
2'Tied up with Socialist ticket. 


oo Wal la 


THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 447 


TaBLeE 59.—FarmMeRS’ Parties REPRESENTED IN NATIONAL ELECTIONS 
BETWEEN 1848 AND 1924! 


Per Cent 
Presidental Election Year Party ANE 
Popular 
Votes , 
DEE ee ey a ae rae wee sels Free Soil 10.1 
RY ORL OA Oe at AGE RR a Free Soil 4.9 
1 TET ge al In at Kare ttre ME PB There is no evidence that the 
farmers rallied in special mem- 
bership to the “Know Noth- 
ing party” 
TA ee PE Ae Se eae ee" 
ERO4ee ae. Tiere ae ey bts ea 
eating! ok MEO Nam ER A Pea? 
sie nes rere ee elect Labor Reform .39 
ETI Se 2 Beh (ink PA ged RS Greenback 97 
BRIO ME EN cde levers elt late. dis Greenback 3.3 
[tele 2, Ves di 1 Da Re ea Greenback and Anti-Monopoly 1.5 
LCS See ee tits yc Me dk ie os Union-Labor 1.3 
ESL pe, 0 Eee EA Peoples S15 
AS 1 5 dae Ul aaa a Peoples-Democrat............. 48.4 
ODOR ee ATE”. o hie Sich as Peoples .36 
DAM Ley rere ete ee. 8 a4. a5 ob 0 a ee Peoples .85 
PMS Tee ea leke lbh 6 a Peoples .19 
Joe Bey gota | ee i pele a 
ey Generar rns (8 5 ce e's he's 
ETA MEO ee ys facade, shes ytal Farmer-Labor TO 
5 aay te Ea a Independent, ete. (La Follette 
{ Group) 13.1 


than any other, and the La Follette strength was more or less a 
national culmination of the Non-Partisan League and Farmer- 
Labor party influence. Whether there is slowly developing a 
tendency on the part of American farmers to political unity it 
would be hard to predict. Certain it is that, for the last few 
years, they have shown a more marked bent to independent 
voting than any other occupational group in America. ‘The 
United Farmers of British Columbia, Canada, have gone 
further than mere independent voting. They have placed 
their candidates in the field, elected them, set up their farmer 
government, and thus have been recognized by themselves 
and others as an agrarian political group. In a number of 


1The easiest source from which to get a short survey of these parties and 
their platforms is the World Almanac for 1924. 


448 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


European countries there are clearly defined agrarian political 
parties. It is possible that the final breakdown of our two 
party systems in the United States will come at the hands of 
the farmers. The sporadic display of farmers voting with 
some degree of unity of purpose a number of times in the past, 
and the marked tendency to independent voting at the present 
give some grounds for believing that this may be the case. 


THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 


How the Farmers Influence Federal Government.—The in- 
fluence of the farmers of the nation in the federal government 
and the service of the federal government to them is not to 
be measured by the numbers of farmers who hold federal of- 
fices or who sit in Congress. Very few farmers are elected to 
Congress or to federal offices. Farmers, however, like all other 
citizens, cast their votes for those who hold federal elective 
offices. Furthermore, national government comes more and 
more to be a register of public opinion rather than a clash of 
personalities. The fact, therefore, that real farmers do not 
hold federal offices is no sign that their interests are not, or 
at least cannot, be well cared for in national government. Or- 
ganization, education, and cooperation have placed the farmer 
in a position to make his wants known and his voice heard in 
Washington. With the exception of such sporadic political 
upheavals as were portrayed in the preceding section, farmers 
have for the most part been an isolated, occupational-minded 
group. They have plodded along with their daily tasks of 
farm work, often chafing under what they thought to be in- 
justices, but with no knowledge or power to resist. Gradually 
they have learned something of both election politics and 
methods of legislation. The results are that large and repre- 
sentative farmers’ organizations now wield considerable polit- 
ical influences in elections and almost universally have legis- 
lative programs which they push vigorously. 

The Grange and the Alliance each claim credit for a number 
of concrete accomplishments in national politics. Whether 
their total claims are justified or not, they undoubtedly wielded 











Ss. lee 


THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 449 


considerable influence in getting the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture represented in the President’s cabinet. 
They influenced railroad legislation and were probably the 
first to start the agitation which resulted in the establishing 
of the Interstate Commerce Commission. They furnished the 
organized propaganda for the Rural Free Delivery. Their 
agitation for the alienation of lands probably had some in- 
fluence in getting a changed policy for handling the Public 
Domain. In addition to these and other organized political 
endeavors, the farmers have recently come to be a larger fac- 
tor in making public opinion than they have been for a 
century. They meet in their local, district, state, and national 
farm organization meetings and constantly discuss social, 
economic, and political issues. They appoint legislative com- 
mittees and persistently push their claims in Congress and 
even carry them directly to the President. 

The “Farm Bloc” was organized at the Washington head- 
quarters of the American Farm Bureau Federation. On May 
9, 1921, twelve senators and twelve representatives, all repre- 
senting farmer constituencies, met there to decide on a pro- 
gram for immediate action. It later came to include twenty- 
two senators and probably three times that many Representa- 
tives. They at first organized themselves into four major 
committees, one on Transportation, one on the Federal Re- 
serve Act, one on Commodity Financing, and one on Miscel- 
laneous Agricultural Bills. This organization was for the 
purpose of getting direct and immediate action on “farm re- 
lief measures.” Senator Capper describes their program as in- 
cluding about the following purposes: 


1. A complete rural credit organization to provide farmers and 
stockmen with an adequate financial system. 

2. Reduction of railway freight rates and the report of Section 
15A of the Esch-Cummins law which gives the Interstate Commerce 
Commission control over interstate rates; also the repeal of other 
objectionable sections of that law. 

3. Legislation to establish a better system for marketing farm 
products. 

4. Legislation to turn Muscle Shoals over to Henry Ford. 


450 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


5. Tax undistributed surpluses and stock dividends. 
6. Stop the further issue of tax-exempt securities.* 


These were all in response to direct demands from organized 
farmers, who had met together by the thousands and dis- 
cussed these things more or less intelligently and often at 
their regular farm-organization meetings. 

The National Board of Farm Organizations, in 1920, sent 
out a series of questions to ascertain the positions of candidates 
on matters which the farmers in these organizations were con- 
vineed needed governmental action. ‘The questions were as 
follows: 


1. Will you do your best to bring about such direct dealing be- 
tween producer and consumer as will secure to the farmers a fair 
share of the wealth they create, reduce the cost of living to the 
consumer, and limit or destroy the opportunity of the profiteer? 

2. Will you do all that in you hes to secure to all farmers and 
consumers the full, free, and unquestioned right to organize and 
to purchase and sell cooperatively? 

3. Will you see that the farm people of America are represented 
on general boards and commissions in whose membership various 
interests are recognized, whether or not the work is directly con- 
cerned with agriculture? 

4. Will you appoint a Secretary of Agriculture who knows actual 
farm conditions, who is satisfactory to the farm organizations of 
America, and who will cause to be made comprehensive studies of 
farm production costs at home and abroad, and publish the uncen- 
sored facts? 

5. Will you take the action necessary to ascertain and make 
public all obtainable facts concerning the great and growing evil 
of farm tenancy, so that steps may be taken to check, reduce, or 
end it? 

6. Will you do your best to secure improved personal and com- 
modity credit facilities on reasonable terms, for farmers? 

7. Will you earnestly endeavor to secure to cooperative organiza- 
tions of farmers engaged in interstate commerce, service and sup- 
plies equal in all respects to those furnished private enterprises 
under like circumstances? 


“Capper, A., The Agricultural Bloc, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New 
York, 1922. 


THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 451 


8. The railroads have been returned to their owners. If at the 
end of two years of further trial of private ownership the railroads 
fail to render reasonably satisfactory service to the people, will you 
then favor re-opening the railroad question? 

9. Will you use your best efforts to secure the payment of the 
war debt chiefly through a highly graduated income tax or, other- 
wise by those best able to pay? 

10. Will you earnestly strive to uphold and enforce the national 
conservation policy, and especially to stop forest devastation, which 
has already more than doubled the price of lumber and paper to 
the consumer? 

11. Will you do your best to secure and enforce effective national 
control over the packers and other great interstate combinations of 
capital engaged in the manufacture, transportation, or distribution 
of food and other farm products and farmers’ supplies? 

12. Will you respect, and earnestly strive to maintain the right 
of free speech, free press, and free assembly? 


These examples are presented not so much to show what 
the farmers demand as to show the different direct methods 
by which farmers are coming to influence national politics and 
national legislation and thus to participate in the federal gov- 
ernment. With their tendencies toward independent political 
organization, increased, enlightened, and almost universal or- 
ganization, 1n one way or another they are gradually coming 
into a position where they can and will be well represented 
in the organization and conduct of national government. 

How the Federal Government Aids Agriculture —The extent 
to which the federal government assists agriculture, to some 
persons’ minds, constitutes an injustice to other industries and 
other classes of people. It is not an injustice for the federal 
government to assist agriculture in a special way, for agri- 
culture is more basic than any other industry and the whole 
citizenry benefits from agricultural production and agricultural 
efficiency. 

Farmers, and many so-called leaders of farmers, do not 
recognize or possibly do not know to what extent the federal 
government aids agriculture. For this reason their attitudes 
toward federal taxes and their criticisms of ‘centralized 
government” are both unjust and unintelligent. The farmer, 


452 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


if for no other reason than because his enterprise and he him- 
self are aided by the federal government, ought to be an en- 
lightened national citizen. 

The first Morrill Act, providing for a college of agriculture 
and mechanical arts in each state, was passed in 1862. This 
act provided for the granting to each state of 30,000 acres of 
land, excluding mineral lands, for each senator and representa- 
tive in the respective states. 

The second Morrill Act was passed in 1890. This act pro- 
vided an additional income of $25,000 to each state. In 1907, 
the Nelson Amendment was passed, which increased this to a 
maximum of $50,000. In 1887, Congress passed the Hatch 
Act, which provided an agricultural experiment station in 
each state, and provided an annual appropriation of $15,000 
for the support of each of these institutions. The Adams Act 
of 1906 increased this annual appropriation to $30,000 for each 
station, and the Purnell Act of 1925 sets out a program which, 
if met by annual congressional appropriations, will, by 1929, 
increase these funds to $90,000 for each state agricultural 
experiment station. 

The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 made provisions for agri- 
cultural extension work by each state college of agriculture. 
The maximum annual federal appropriation of this law 
amounts $4,580,000. This full appropriation was reached by 
sraduated degrees beginning with $480,000 in 1914 and reach- 
ing the maximum in 1922. It provides an average of $97,500 
per state from the federal treasury. 

The Smith-Hughes Act was passed in 1917. It reached its 
maximum federal appropriation of $3,000,000, in 1926, which 
sum is now appropriated annually. This is an average per 
state of $62,541.66. 

The total annual sum appropriated from the federal treas- 
ury by 1929, under the provisions of the various acts, if ap- 
propriations are made to meet the provisions of the Purnell 
Act, will be $15,960,000 in addition to the return from the 
original land grants. By the provisions of the various acts 
these funds are not divided equally among the states. If they 
were, it would be $332,708.33 per state. As it is, those states 





THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 453 


that are both populous and dominantly rural receive twice this 
amount. 

The United States Department of Agriculture exists for no 
other purpose than that of assisting the farm enterprise. It 
is composed of sixteen bureaus, has an annual appropria- 
tion from Congress of about $30,000,000, and employs 23,000 
persons. In addition to the United States Department of 
Agriculture, the Department of Interior has large agricultural 
functions, and the Department of Commerce renders much 
service to the farm enterprise. 

The Interstate Commerce Commission is claimed by certain 
farm organizations as having come into existence through their 
influence. In its dealing with transportation rates, it touches 
the farmer in various ways. The Federal Trade Commission 
has investigated a number of industrial and commercial com- 
binations which farmers have thought were practicing dis- 
crimination of one kind or another against them. The Federal 
Reserve Board with the federal farm loan and intermediate 
bank functions is a servant of the farmer. 

The Farmer and State Government.—State government is 
considerably more personally controlled directly by the people 
than is the federal government. It is not so much that public 
opinion plays a lesser rdle in state government but that the 
representatives elected by the people play relatively a much 
greater role. Until 1916, United States Senators were not 
elected by the direct vote of the people. State legislative 
officers always have been elected by popular vote. ‘There are 
only ninety-six United States Senators and 485 United States 
Representatives. The same people who elect these 531 legis- 
lators to make the federal laws, elect about 2,400 state senators 
and 5,000 state representatives to make state laws. Because 
a very much larger number of voters personally know the 
state legislators, state government can and must respond much 
more directly to the personal demands of its constituency. 

No one seems to have been able to ascertain just what per 
cent of the state legislators are farmers by occupation. The 
evidence is sufficient, however, to indicate that a greater per 
cent of state than United States legislators are farmers. This 


454 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


means, of course, a very much greater total number of farmer 
legislators because of the increased number of these offices to 
be filled. It is questionable whether more than four or five 
United States Senators have a right to classify themselves as 
farmers. Many of them may own land, and thus indirectly 
operate farms, but they also operate other enterprises and 
follow other professions. On the other hand, in the state 
of Ohio, 14.1 per cent, and in Iowa 35.2 per cent, of the total 
general legislative assemblies are farmers.’ The per cent of 
farmers in the lower house in each of these states greatly ex- 
ceeds that in the upper house. ‘This is apparently due to the 
fact that the total number of representatives is greater than 
that of senators, usually averaging about one representative to 
each county. ‘Thus the individual who runs for office is quite 
personally known to those who elect him to office. 

The writer has attempted to obtain statistics from all the 
states on these items, but has been unable to do so. From 
what facts he has gathered it is his calculation that about 15 
per cent of the state legislators are farmers by occupation. 
The percentage ranges much higher than this in the Mid- 
western, Northwestern and Southern states but considerably 
lower than this in the New England and Northeastern States. 

Practically every method used by the farmers to influence 
legislation, described in the section on federal government, is 
used also to influence state government. The efforts are 
usually more effectual in state than in national government. 
Many state representatives are elected by almost purely rural 
constituencies. In thirty states a majority of the population 
is rural. In these states, all state officials find it necessary to 
respond directly to farm interests and farmer demands. 

The state governments do not maintain as many agricultural 
service agencies as does the federal government. Most of 
them have state departments of agriculture. All of them have 
state agricultural colleges. Many of them have departments 
of conservation and a few of them have colonization and set- 
tlement boards. South Dakota and Minnesota have rural 


*Voat, P. L., Introduction to Rural Sociology, 230 pp., D. Appleton & Com- 
pany, New York, 1925. 


THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 455 


credit bureaus. In a few states the school system is a state 
system. State road systems are becoming rapidly established. 
In Pennsylvania, New York, and South Carolina there are 
state rural police systems. All in all, however, the farm con- 
stituency is not so directly served by state agencies as it is by 
state legislation passed directly in favor of farm interests and 
in local legislation which is passed by the state legislatures. 

The Farmer and Local Government—County government 
comes nearer being farmer controlled and operated than any 
other unit of government in the United States. It grew up in 
the South in direct response to rural conditions which made 
impossible or impracticable the New England form of local 
government. It spread throughout the nation with its agri- 
cultural expansion. It furnishes almost all of the govern- 
mental machinery with which the farmer deals directly. Even 
much of the administration of state and federal governments 
comes to the farmer through the agency of county government. 
Its usual functions are, to care for the poor, to maintain a 
system of public roads and bridges, to maintain the public 
peace, to keep records of property transfers, to provide for the 
administration of justice, to maintain educational standards 
of the schools of the county, to probate wills, to provide and 
maintain a court house, jail, and other public buildings, to 
administer tax machinery, and to provide for elections. These 
are the chief day-by-day and year-by-year governmental fune- 
tions with which the farmer deals. In actual practice, there- 
fore, the county is his most used unit of government. 

The governing body of the county in those states which 
have no township organization, is usually called the “board 
of county commissioners,” consisting of from three to five 
members elected at large. In states that have the mixed 
township-county government this body is called the “board of 
supervisors,” its members being elected by the townships, one 
from each. Farmers probably more universally hold these 
offices than any other political offices in the United States. In 
the states where these offices are distributed by townships, the 
large majority of them must necessarily be held by farmers 
because of the absence of urban centers in a great many town- 


456 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


ships. In states where this geographic distribution is not re- 
quired by law, the practicability of having the different areas 
of the county represented generally serves to fill these offices 
with persons from outlying areas—that is, with farmers. 

Most counties in the United States still maintain a long list 
of elective offices. They probably average at least ten elective 
offices in addition to the county commissioners or supervisors 
At least half of those are usually filled by farmers. | 

In addition to the elected officials, there have recently been 
added to the list of county officials or employees a number 
of others who perform various expert services. The county 
farm and home demonstration agents, county health officers, 
and county welfare officers are chiefly servants of the farm 
population of the county. ‘The county surveyor, or engineer, 
has his chief duties to perform in areas that lie outside in- 
corporated places. 

It is a criticism of rural political enlightenment and con- 
cern to say that county government is probably the weakest 
link in our whole set of governmental machinery, but such 
is quite universally admitted to be the case. The county gov- 
ernment has no head, such as a governor or president. It has 
altogether too many elective officers. It chooses the officers 
on the basis of national party allegiance, which is of no con- 
cern or meaning in local affairs. It seldom has a uniform or 
systematic type of accounts. It has no adequate rural police 
force, and little rural sanitary or health supervision. It is 
quite universally short of funds because it is supported by 
property taxes and the assessments or valuations are kept 
down. Its elective officers change often, and usually the more 
substantial citizens refuse to leave their occupations or pro- 
fessions for the sake of political offices which carry no greater 
distinctions than those of a county official. 

Tendencies toward Strengthening Rural Local Govern- 
ment.—There is a slow-growing sentiment in favor of the 
short ballot in county government. The Los Angeles and 
Alameda charters, in California, provide for commission forms 
of government. In Massachusetts, four of the officers usually 
elected in other states are appointed. In Connecticut, the 


THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 457 


sheriff is appointed. In some of the other New England states 
the superior judges are appointed for life, the sheriff is elected 
for five years, the district attorney is appointed by the superior 
court, the probate judge and the auditor are appointed by the 
governor. In some other states, certain county officers, such as 
the sheriff, are removable by the state. Cook County, Illinois, 
has a president. New Jersey and South Carolina have but one 
county supervisor in each county. The coroner is appointed 
in the New England States and California. It is possible that 
this tendency to shorten the ballot may soon result in a com- 
mission form of county government or even a manager form 
of government. If such a movement were to become current 
there would probably result the same gains in efficiency which 
have taken place in city government in the last fifteen years. 

There is a growing tendency for the smaller units of rural 
government to give way to larger units of control. District 
school units are giving way to consolidated or township units. 
County units of taxation, control, and supervision are grow- 
ing rapidly in comparison with township units. In a number 
of states even the state government, by school equalization 
funds, certification of teachers, and state courses of study is 
coming to set the educational standard and policy for the 
counties. Road districts are gradually evolving from local 
and township, to county and state systems. The county and 
home demonstration agents, and the health and public wel- 
fare officers are quite universally, at least partially, controlled 
by overhead state agencies. State laws are enacted for the 
control of cattle tick, and bovine tuberculosis eradication, 
game protection, stream pollution, road speed limits, and sim1- 
lar measures. The more apt means of transportation and 
communication are making desirable, and even necessary, 
larger units of control and supervision. With these larger units 
almost universally goes a great efficiency and better service. 

There are also growing tendencies to making local govern- 
ment conform to local and practicable community functions. 
Dr. Douglas lists eight such specific tendencies:* 


1Dovuauas, H. P., “Recent, Legislation Facilitating Rural Community Or- 
ganization,” in proceedings, Third National Country Life Association, pp. 117- 
126, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1920. 


458 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


These are as follows: 

1. Legislation permitting rural areas defined by community self- 
consciousness to incorporate for the performance of all essential 
civic functions, that is, to become municipal units doing essentially 
all a town can do. Example: the North Carolina Rural Township 
Incorporation Law. 

2. Legislation permitting the establishment of school districts, 
covering areas defined by community self-consciousness and irre- 
spective of local political boundaries or previous educational units. 
Examples: the “community” high and consolidated schools of Illi- 
nois; similar laws in Kansas, Nebraska, and Washington; the rural 
agricultural school law of Michigan. 

3. Legislation permitting or fostering the establishment of rural 
community councils, community centers, and buildings. Examples: 
the Michigan and Wisconsin laws. 

4, Legislation providing means of overcoming the arbitrary limits 
of counties or minor local government units in the support of com- 
munity governmental functions. Examples: school laws of Michi- 
gan, Arkansas, California. 

5. Legislation implying a zone system of taxation for the sup- 
port of different functions within a given community. Example: 
a great body of laws creating ‘special districts” of various sorts. 

6. Legislation providing for cooperation between local govern- 
ments and local voluntary agencies of civic importance. Example: 
Indiana (Chap. 206, Acts of 1919). This provides that towns of 
1,000 or more people may “accept, maintain, operate, improve, or 
cooperate with private associations or individuals in maintaining, 
etc., auditoriums, recreation buildings, and grounds;” and provides 
for levying a tax. 

7. Legislation involving the identification of natural communi- 
ties and their relationships, over larger contiguous areas. Ex- 
amples: The Nebraska State Rural School Redistricting Law. 

8. Legislation allowing options between a variety of local govern- 
mental agencies in carrying out community measures. Example: 
the Michigan Community Council Law. 


The Universal increase in the region of law, the coming of 
‘he farm enterprise into the commercial world, and the rapid 
increase in the farmer’s social contacts are all serving to make 
it more essential that he participate in political and govern- 
mental activities and that he call upon the various units of 


THE FARMER AND HIS GOVERNMENT 459 


government which serve him to respond more directly to the 
demand of his economic and social needs. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Rice, 8. A., Farmers and Workers in American Politics, Longmans, Green 
& Co., New York, 1924. 

West, E., Agricultural Organization in the United States, Chaps. II and 
XXIII, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 1923. 

Carrer, A., The Agricultural Bloc, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 
1922. 

Bruce, A. A., The Non-Partisan League, The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1921. 

Proceedings of Third National Country Life Conference, pp. 107-132, Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press, Chicago, Llinois, 1920. 


CHAPTER XXI 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 
THE INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY OF THE FARMER 


The Influence of the Occupation of Farming upon the Per- 
sonality of the Farmer.—In the great fundamentals of human 
nature, the farmer is not unlike all other persons. He has the 
same senses with which to gain experience. He has the same 
instincts and about the same impulses as all others. Even so, 
he is different from all other occupational types of persons. 
Persons are in behavior or conduct what they most habitually 
do. The farmer farms. He does not preach, teach, practice 
law or medicine, sail the seas, or mine coal. He is a farmer 
in action and thought. He does much manual labor, works 
chiefly with things and not with people, works chiefly with 
living and growing things, and not with machines. He ad- 
justs his whole program of work to the coming and going of 
the seasons and to the precariousness of the weather. He works 
much of the time in comparative solitude. He lives, and 
works, and spends much of his leisure time at home. All of 
these things become a part of both his unconscious and con- 
scious scheme of life. They make him what he 1s. 

Occupations furnish our most habitual modes of activity, 
and our modes of activity dictate our patterns of thought. 
This is true because, in most cases, a person’s occupation is 
his dominant interest, and his interests are the springboards 
for his thoughts and attitudes. In the case of an occupation 
that comes as near being culturally inherited as farming is, the 
attitudes which arise out of the occupation are passed down 
from generation to generation and become fixed. Children are 
trained, both consciously and unconsciously, to accept the 
traditional attitudes of the occupational group. 

There is a vast difference between the person whose chief 

460 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 461 


adjustments are to other persons and the person whose chief 
adjustments are to inanimate or non-conscious things. In the 
case of human adjustments, there is constant reciprocity of 
stimulus and response. In the case of adjustments to inani- 
mate things, there is either mastery or slavery. The farmer is 
master of certain elements in his physical environment and 
slave to others, and the psychology of neither master nor 
slave is typically human. The farmer may say he loves his 
dairy cows or hates the mud, but in neither case is there the 
same passion in the tone of his feelings as there would be if 
these emotions arose out of a social situation and referred to 
other human beings. Personality is sometimes said to be 
built out of reflections from other persons’ lives, or to be a 
self, into which are woven the contacts and influences of other 
personalities. This is largely true, but it is not the whole 
truth, for personality also reflects the influences of the physical 
world in which one works. The body and mind, subjected to 
the constant play of any influence, come to react in an habitual 
way to that influence. The old farmer in Eugene O’Neill’s 
play, “Desire under the Elms,’ who has spent his life in bat- 
tling the stony fields of a New England hill farm is made to 
say, “I’m lonely. I’m hard. God’s lonely, God’s hard.” 

In The Growth of the Soil, Hamsun brings the description 
of Isak, the old Margrave, to a close in the following lines: 


Isak at his sowing; a stump of a man, a barge of a man to look 
at nothing more. Clad in homespun-wool from his own sheep, 
boots from the hide of his own cows and calves. Sowing—and he 
walks religiously bareheaded to that work; his head is bald just at 
the very top, but all the rest of him shamefully hairy; a fan, a 
wheel of hair and beard, stands out from his face. ’Tis Isak, the 
Marerave. 

A tiller of the ground, body and soul; a worker of the land with- 
out respite, a ghost risen out of the past to point the future, a man 
from the earliest days of cultivation. A settler in the wilds, nine 
hundred years old, and withal a man of the day. 


1Hamsun, Knut, The Growth of the Soil, pp. 151 and 152, Alfred A. 
Knopf, New York, 1922. 


462 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


These two pieces of art depict in striking forms the influences 
of the forces that play constantly upon the personality of man 
who farms. It is not that the farmer has no social contacts 
or that persons in other occupations and professions do not 
have to make adjustments to the stern elements and forces 
of physical nature. It is only that a much larger per cent of 
the farmer’s acts and thoughts have, and must have, to do 
with adjustments to these stern forces. 

Dr. C. J. Galpin gives a vivid picture of the contest of the 
farmer with the forces of physical nature in the following 
lines: 


The farmer in act is the tiller of the soil. He is the man, hoe 
in hand, with bent back, striking a blow at the weakest point in the 
earth’s crust, pulling upward, loosening the earth’s grip upon a por- 
tion of the soil, lifting it for a moment, and finally turning it upon 
its face. This momentary, mechanical victory is repeated, clod by 
clod, yard by yard, hour after hour, day after day all thru the 
season of soil preparation. Unremittingly looking his earth an- 
tagonist in the eye, the land-worker gives and takes—gives his 
blows and takes the after-effects into his own body and soul.? 


The farmer is different from the professional man or sales- 
man, because he deals chiefly with physical situations and not 
with social situations. He is different from the machine 
worker or industrial worker, because many of the things with 
which he deals are living things. Plants and animals are not 
like power-driven machines whose monotonous and clock-like 
routine must be met with such precision and constancy as to 
make the man an absolute slave of machine speed and motion. 
Plants and animals are organisms that respond to care and 
nurture, that live, and grow, and die. Animal pets have played 
a part in the lives of all known people. They are almost a part 
of human society. Certainly they and their care become a 
part of the personality of the farmer. As a dairyman friend 
of the writer is wont to say, “The first requisite of a good 
dairyman is that when he looks a dairy cow in the face, he 
loves her.” It is more than probable that some of the food 
taboos of the ancient Hebrews and the present day Hindus 

*GapiIn, C. J., Rural Lafe, p. 4, The Century Co., New York, 1918. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 463 


had their origins in the influence of animal pets whose presence 
and life characteristics literally constituted them a part of 
the tribal sentiments. Some oriental peoples, with long cen- 
turies of agricultural traditions woven into their lives, regard 
even plant life with a marked reverence.’ 

Not only has husbandry, as a habit of mind and a sentiment, 
developed out of the handling of plants and animals, but it 
is more than likely that animism did also. The mysteries of 
the propagation and growth of organic life are things only re- 
cently and only partially understood. The mystery and mar- 
vel of a species of grain that will bring forth an hundred fold 
is something to ponder. Especially is this true when the des- 
tiny of a man and all who depend upon him is cast upon a 
faith in the working of the miracle. It is not surprising, there- 
fore, that farmers are slow to substitute quantitative science 
and the cold calculation of business for their naive trust in 
the scheme of nature and for their animistic theories of nature. 

The Influence of Weather, Climate, and Seasons upon Rural 
Attitudes—The average city occupation is very little in- 
fluenced by the precarious forces of physical nature. The 
weather is shut out by factory walls and roofs. The climate 
and seasons are made or modified by artificial heat and electric 
fans. Even the sun’s light is dispensed with as an essential 
element for working hours. Furthermore, the immediate 
earning capacity of a city worker is not cast into jeopardy by 
the precariousness of forces which lie beyond human control. 
To quote another vivid picture from Dr. C. J. Galpin: 


Climatic forces, operating through the atmosphere envelope— 
heat, light, moisture, cold, frost, ice—all are the farmer’s friendly 
allies when timely, but his inveterate foes when ill-timed or ex- 
cessive. An excessive dryness increases the strain in plowing and 
seeding and cultivating. Excessive moisture makes mud in the 
path of his transportation and doubles every ascent. In the 
seasons when the climatic forces are in flux, when the moods of 
the air are fickle, in spring and fall, rural life is under the special 
strain of uncertainty, risk, danger, and economic disaster. Many 


1Rinpgany, A. M., The Syrian Christ, p. 25, Houghton, Mifflin, Company, 
New York, 1922. 


464 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


a load becomes stationary. Many a plan is unfulfilled. Many a 
sudden shift about of farm work finds new inertia to be overcome. 
For every smile of springtime that cheers the countryman’s lot, 
there comes inevitably an undeserved frown. The impetuous and 
wholly irrational whims of weather educate the rural mind to 
caution, if not suspicion, in receiving the advance of friendly forces. 


The presence of numerous weather superstitions and signs 
in farm practices, and the tendency of rural conversation to 
drift to talk about seasons and weather are not due solely to 
lack of social contacts. That is the negative aspect of these 
phenomena. The positive aspect is the tremendous part that 
seasons and weather play in rural destiny. The helplessness 
of the farmer, in the face of forces that lie beyond his control, 
has led to resignation and even to a high degree of fatalism in 
his attitudes and convictions. The primitive religious belief 
that “whatever is to be will be’ has broken down much more 
rapidly in city life than in country life. Such beliefs are 
handicaps, even sometimes inhibitions to modern methods of 
calculating results in terms of known causes and effects. R. 
W. Williams makes the point that no small part of the reason 
for the farmer’s slow acceptance of business criteria in produc- 
tion is, that, not being sure of results, he has been led to em- 
phasize “industrious working,’ and not economic returns, as 
his measure of value? Williams believes, further, that the 
farmer’s attitude of resignation has made him an easy prey of 
landlords and business men. Farmers have conceived the 
processes of the business world much as they have those of 
nature, as incalculable, and emphasized mere industriousness 
instead of shrewd dealing with shrewd men.? 

The author has assembled 467 different superstitions and 
signs which are known, and to some extent believed, in rural 
communities. The majority of them, 54.9 per cent, have. 
reference to climate, weather, plants, and animals. Over one- 
fourth, 27.8 per cent, have reference to climate and weather. 


*GALPIN, C. J., Op. Crt., pp. 11-12. 

* WituiAMs, R. W., Our Rural Heritage, p. 35, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 
1925. 

* Ibid, p. 37. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 465 


The point is not that superstitions, signs and charms are more 
prevalent among rural people than among urban people, 
though such is probably the case, but only that the enterprise 
of farming is so influenced by the precariousness of the weather 
that specious explanations of its cause and effect have become 
current in rural life. 

The Influence of Isolation upon Personality—The farm 
home is an isolated residence. The farm family is a compara- 
tively isolated social unit. The farmer himself spends thou- 
sands of hours working in solitude. He dictates his own day’s 
stint and makes his own choice of activity. He builds his 
thinking out of his own individual experience to a much greater 
extent than does the man who works in a gang or under a 
boss. Furthermore, because he has been compelled to make 
his own adjustments and reach his own conclusions, these 
things become finally fixed as a part of his personality. Be- 
cause he works in solitude, he is meditative. His ideas are not 
mere working hypotheses, they are philosophies. His solitude 
shields him or robs him of a competition or conflict of ideas. 
No fellow workman breaks his meditation or challenges his 
day dream. He, therefore, develops deep convictions which 
cannot be shaken quickly or easily. Very few of his mental 
adjustments are made on the basis of conference with other 
persons. Even when he and his problems are subject to con- 
ference he usually prefers to take the ideas home where he 
can think them over and make up his own mind. 

Very little is known about the absolute influence of isola- 
tion, and, because what is known is concerning extreme or 
abnormal cases, it is difficult to calculate, or even to guess, the 
significance of the farmer’s relative lack of human contacts. 
A few cases of persons who have lived for years out of all 
human contacts are known and have been studied. In all of 
these cases the persons have grown to maturity without de- 
veloping many of the habits, attitudes, and even physical ad- 
justments which children learn in the first few years of their 
lives.1 Prisoners kept in solitary confinement suffer distor- 


*See Park and Burcsss, Introduction to the Science of Sociology, pp. 239- 
243, on feral men, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1921. 


466 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


tion of attitudes, disintegration of mind, and drastic changes 
in their whole personalities. They become self-conscious, sus- 
picious, emotional, and even anti-social in attitudes.t The 
isolation of the farmer is not so extreme as either of the types 
just mentioned. But from childhood to old age he lacks thou- 
sands of contacts which are a part of the average city person’s 
social environment. He is therefore more stable, staunch, or 
stolid than the city person. 

The Thought Processes of Farm Life.-—As has been noted, 
farmers have always lived in relative isolation. This was more 
true yesterday than it is today. They have always been indi- 
viduals operating in a markedly independent fashion. They 
have, therefore, been compelled to solve their problems and 
conduct their enterprises out-of that stock of experience which 
they themselves have had, or which their fathers have handed 
down to them. The fact that this stock of experience has been 
in existence for a long while and has been tested many times, 
gives it a standing as a body of operating techniques which 
many other occupational groups do not possess. The farmer 
is not subjected to the forces of social change which are con- 
tinually upsetting old ideas in other walks of life. Tannen- 
baum says: 


Change is the very life of industry today. New methods, new 
processes, new inventions, new markets, new fashions, new fads, 
new discoveries and organization characterize the greater part of 
the industrial world. Every change means a change for somebody. 
Insecurity is the dominant fact in the lives of every class in the 
community; no one escapes it.” 


Tannenbaum concludes his picture of the insecurity of our 
modern industrial life by contrasting it with the life of the 
medieval serf who, though poor and bound to the land, never- 
theless, had safety and security. He had his little piece of 
land, his own house, a few animals and a consciousness that 
no boss would fire him. The American farm tenant does not 

* Bocarpus, E. §., Fundamentals of Social Psychology, p. 92, The Century 
Co., New York, 1924. 


* TANNENBAUM, F., The Labor Movement, Chap. I., G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 
New York, 1921. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 467 


enjoy the degree of security which the European serf did. But 
the American land owner-operator enjoys even a greater state 
of security. 

The independence and security of the farmer has given him 
a traditional attitude of independence, and his individual en- 
trepreneurship has developed in him the habit of forming judg- 
ments of his own. There is probably nothing more character- 
istic of the American farmer than this habit of seemingly inde- 
pendent thinking. The effects of this mode or type of think- 
ing have been both beneficial and detrimental to him and to 
society. It has given him a habit of mind which, when given 
the opportunity to connect up with the techniques of science, 
business, and politics, has made him a great factor in national 
leadership. On the other hand, it has been his greatest handi- 
cap when not connected with these systems and techniques. 
Since these systems have, until very recently, existed only in 
city life, he has contributed far more leaders to city and 
national life and to the solution of city and national problems 
than he has to rural life and to the solution of rural problems. 
His independence of thought and action has all too often 
manifested itself in mere individualism and lack of co- 
operation in relation to his own life and problems. 

These facts, together with the fact that the farm with its 
few human contacts has not been a place of rapid change or 
many innovations, have also made of the farmers a conserva- 
tive group. This characteristic of thought is also both bene- 
ficial and detrimental to the farmer and to society. It isa 
valuable thing, especially noticeable in times of stress, for a 
nation to have a great group of people—millions of them in 
the case of the American farmer—who refuse to lose their heads 
in times of crisis and who refuse to change their opinions under 
some slight provocation. On the other hand, many progressive 
and necessary pieces of state legislation have been defeated 
because the representatives of farmers, who live in extremely 
isolated rural districts, have all too well represented the 
farmer’s aversion to change. The greatest detriment, however, 
of this conservatism is that it has registered itself in the 
farmer’s influence upon his own community, his own institu- 


468 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


tions, and even in his own occupation. It has served, in some 
cases, so thoroughly to preserve old ways of doing and think- 
ing as to forbid the substitution of scientific farming for tradi- 
tional and even “sign” farming; to perpetuate the inefficient 
one-room school house; to maintain traditional religious ideas 
with their forbidding restraints and lack of appeal to young 
life; and to refuse to allow the introduction of modern things 
in rural communities, which young people, especially, have 
come to desire because they have learned that they exist else- 
where. 

The conditions and processes under which farmers have 
labored in the past have resulted in at least two general atti- 
tudes of mind: the farmer has always been conservative, and 
has always been individualistic. These characteristics have 
been natural results of his isolation, his lack of corporate en- 
terprise and, until recently, the failure of science to penetrate 
into his occupation. 

The farmer is probably a deeper thinker than any other man 
who does the same amount of manual labor that he does. This 
is due to a number of causes, some of which have been men- 
tioned in other connections. In the first place, his contact— 
often struggle—with nature, which buffets him and beats 
him down at times and at other times yields him gifts 
far beyond the fruits of his own effort, is his constantly 
to study. The fact that he fails to generalize concern- 
ing these things, or in any subtle way to analyze them, does 
not obviate their influence upon him. He does ponder them. 
He is compelled to make adjustments to them, to use them, to 
live year in and year out with them as his partners or oppo- 
nents. He may seek to explain them through signs, to mitigate 
them through propitiation, or to use them according to the 
best methods of modern scientific farming. In any ease, he is 
in a different process than the man who feeds a factory ma- 
chine, fills a grocery order, or delivers a load of coal. He is 
dealing with nature, not machines. His adjustments are to 
the great forces and cycles of nature as much or more than 
they are to man. It is because of these facts that he is a 
different, if not a deeper, thinker than any other man who 


———————— se Oe eS 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 469 


works with his hands. It is not a violent assumption to say 
that men do not think except when compelled to do so. The 
city manual laborer’s daily and hourly routine is so absolutely 
set and dictated by mechanical devices that he is seldom urged 
to think. The farmer’s daily and hourly routine is liable to 
change, to be broken into, at any time. What he shall do at 
these many points depends upon his own judgment. He does 
not sit down and wait until the foreman or some one far up 
the line of a chain of machines straightens out the trouble. 
He must act for himself; he must use his own judgment; he 
must think. When we turn to the skilled professions of the 
city—the practice of medicine, the practice of law, preach- 
ing, teaching or business—the necessity for thinking becomes 
not only greater than in the factory but, without doubt, 
ereater than on the farm. 

Furthermore, outside the daily work routine, there is a 
constant change in general city life which is not present on 
the farm. The city is a place of change, a place of fads and 
fashions. Millions of dollars spent in advertisements, electric 
signs, street bawlers, show windows, and what not in the 
city play as stimuli upon the city dweller. These things are, 
for the most part, absent from the farm environment. The 
effects of these differences of environment are reflected not 
only in the farmer’s every-day life but in his constant and 
purposeful attitudes toward life. He is not used to these 
subtle and fictitious stimulations and changes, and, therefore, 
does not believe in them. He does not follow these fads and 
fashions, therefore, he not only thinks they are wasteful, but 
wicked. His attention is not bid for in terms of constant ex- 
penditure of money and continuous desire to escape work and 
seek pleasure. He does not seek change for the sake of 
change. 

It is not argued that all city persons spend all their time 
catering to these influences, and that rural persons react 
violently and adversely to all these things. These great 
universal differences, however, do constitute two sets of con- 
stant influences in the life of these two groups. Some of the 
effects upon the farmer are to be found in his conservatism— 


470 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


absence of habits and thoughts of change—his belief in the 
rightness and righteousness of his work, his belief in the sacred 
duty to save, his condemnation of show and conspicuous 
waste. These attitudes constitute him a person with a serious 
purpose in life—one upon whom we can depend to preserve 
the integrity of our social institutions, one whose general atti- 
tudes toward his own life, his family’s life, and in fact toward 
all life, is so stable that he contributes a great moral force 
in our social life. From his homes and communities come 
men and women in great numbers who, in the future as in 
the past, will furnish us some of the greatest leaders in all 
phases of our social life. 


THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF RURAL LIFE 


The General Lack of Group Technique in Rural Infe— 
The self-sufficient farm has been an individual, or at most 
a family, enterprise. Farm work is not, for the most part, 
conducted by gang labor. It is not conducted on the basis 
of a plan into which it must fit as one of many divisions of 
labor. It is not planned nor carried out by conference. The 
large majority of American farms are one-man or two-men 
enterprises. Most of the occasions when the farmer becomes 
a member of a face-to-face group of greater size than his own 
family are formal. He goes to church, to the Chautauqua, 
or to lectures where his part is that of a spectator and lis- 
tener. He isa member of few discussion groups. Rural gath- 
erings, in which discussion or debate has taken place, have 
not in the past had as their objectives the reaching of group 
conclusions. ‘They have been for pleasure and recreation. 
They have, therefore, contributed very little, if anything, to 
developing group or cooperative activities and attitudes. 

The farmer’s group enterprises are highly institutionalized. 
His church service and even his church beliefs are set for him 
by custom and tradition. His school is operated by a paid 
expert. He is not highly conscious of the pressure of gov- 
ernment, or else it appears to him to be operated from some 
far-off source. His family is about the only group in which 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 471 


the individual participates in any wholehearted, personal way. 
Kiven the family is subjected to a more traditionally auto- 
cratic régime in which the parents, most often the father, 
play a more dominant role than is the ease in city life. 

The American farmer is an individualist in practice and 
ideas, and individualism is inimical to group concepts and 
group technique. The extreme individualist fails to give and 
take, and thus fails to become a part of group thinking. He 
neither cares to lead nor is willing to follow. In his own 
family he is willing to rule. But he grants every other head 
of a family that same privilege. The long history of pioneer 
life, the whole system of individual farm enterprise, and the 
individual scheme of isolated farm residences have contrib- 
uted a technique of action and thought which presents a severe 
handicap to cooperative or group action among farmers. Fur- 
thermore, farming is largely learned by apprenticeship. The 
beginning farmer depends neither upon a scientific blue print 
nor upon originality. He simply seems to imbibe his knowl- 
edge from no one but himself. 

The Processes of Socialization and Culturalization Are Slow 
wm Fural Society—The farmer has always been short on 
means of communication. News and new ideas reach him 
later than they do the city person. They are disseminated 
slowly throughout the rural community, once they do arrive 
there. They run athwart many customs and modes of think- 
ing that are deeply set in the minds of rural people. Social 
life and culture are both dependent upon communication. 
Man alone has culture. We do not mean culture in the 
sense of refinement of manners, but in the sense of traditions, 
sentiments, and mores. Farmers participate in all of these 
socio-psychological currents. But because of their lack of 
social contacts and few and relatively inapt means of com- 
munication, these currents travel more slowly in rural com- 
munities than elsewhere. 

Socialization involves the participation of the individual 
in the spirit, purpose, decisions, and actions of groups: * 


1Burcess, E. W., The Function of Socialization in Social Evolution, p. 
2, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1916. 


472 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


It is the process whereby individuals unconsciously and con- 
sciously learn to act, feel, and think dependably together but not 
necessarily alike in behalf of human welfare outside their own." 


Farmers of the past have had few problems that demanded 
conferences. They have lived in isolation. They have not, 
as individuals, therefore, learned to act, feel, and think de- 
pendably together. E. 8S. Bogardus makes the point that it is 
by such dependable or habitual cooperative acting and think- 
ing that those participating, experience a change involving an 
increasing degree of social self-control, of social responsibility, 
and of personal enrichment and expansion.” The farmer 
has, for the most part, been robbed of these experiences, and 
any rural program or project that is built upon the use of 
them suffers because of his lack of personal socialization. He 
has learned his occupational technique by apprenticeship and 
not by wholesale culture borrowing as has often been the case 
in industry. 

Few if any rural face-to-face groups, other than the family, 
are “dependable.” The family is more dominant in the life 
of the rural child than in the life of the city child. The fam- 
ily’s contributions to the socialization of the individual are 
therefore fully made. Its techniques and attitudes, however, 
are not extended to other human relationships. Socialization 
involves one’s attitude toward all persons and all groups. The 
farmer has no gangs, no trade unions, few fraternal organiza- 
tions, practically no participating play groups, and does not, 
in his day-to-day life, come into contact with the hetero- 
geneous and cosmopolitan masses of city life. It is no insult 
to him, therefore, to say that he is not highly socialized. He 
has not had from childhood to maturity the stimuli of play 
groups, close neighborhood life, and street contacts that are 
a part of the city person’s life. 

Culture is a core of ideas and beliefs which activates and 
unifies a people and in a large measure controls their career. 
It is their mode of life in both action and attitude. Culture 
is composed of numerous traits which altogether make up the 


*Bocarpus, E. S8., Op. Cirt., p. 229. 
* bid. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 473 


culture complex. A culture trait is a unit of action and 
thought, some one manner, means, or method of doing or 
thinking. A culture complex is a bundle of culture traits 
which have grown up and hang together, such as a system of 
agricultural production.t In American agriculture we have 
the corn belt and cotton belt. These areas are organized on 
the bases of culture complexes which hold the people within 
them, both the tillers of the soil and the business men of the 
areas, in line with customs and traditions of farming that 
are generations old. A culture once established stands its 
ground against the impact of new ideas. It seldom gives way 
in mass but generally by the slow infiltration of new culture 
traits. The more isolated a group of people is the stauncher 
does their old culture stand and the harder it is for a new 
culture trait to filter in. Because the American farmer lives 
in comparative isolation, his culture habitually lags behind 
that of the civilization of which he is a factor. 

Culture traits are either invented, borrowed, or gained by 
conversion of two or more old modes of action and thought. 
All of these methods are handicapped in rural life. The gross, 
long-time adaptations to seasons, climate, gravitation, and the 
general reign of physical law, make invention of ideas difficult. 
The lack of subtle means of communication makes culture 
borrowing the exception to the rule. The convergence of two 
old types of culture is not likely because of the dominant 
reign of some one type over wide geographic areas. Further- 
more, farming is so widely different from all other occupations 
and professions that the borrowing of culture ideas seldom is 
feasible. About the only examples of noticeable cultural 
changes in given rural areas are those cases where large areas 
have been rapidly peopled by foreign settlements or colonies. 

Science and business, coming into agriculture, are exceptions 
to the rule just stated. These are systems of culture which 
have been developed almost altogether outside the field of 
agriculture. They are penetrating the occupation or enterprise 
of agriculture rapidly now. They are complexes or systems 


1'Wissuer, C., Man and Culture, pp. 1, 3, 49 and 50-52, Thomas Y. Crowell 
Company, New York, 1923. 


474 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


which the farming class can borrow from others and, once 
having learned to use them, can make combinations of them, 
or inventions of their own. Both of these fields of action and 
thought have been seriously handicapped, however, by the 
inertia of culture which prevails in rural life.’ 

The Presence of Mass or Mob Psychology Is Slight in Rural 
Society.—Practically everything that has been described as a 
characteristic of the farmer’s mind constitutes a prophylaxis 
to crowd, or mob, behavior. ‘The farmer is individualistic, 
meditative, and independent minded. Crowds are fickle, sug- 
gestible, passionable. They operate in a gang or clique spirit. 
They follow leaders. The farmer is inept in all these things. 
Le Bon says a crowd is “subjected to the law of mental unity 
and forms a single being.” * 

Sidis states that “intensity of personality is in inverse pro- 
portion to the number of aggregated men”; that “cramping of 
voluntary movements sets the stage for mass or mob action.” ® 
The opportunities for either of these conditions among farmers 
are few. The farmer is not a man of the masses and his life is 
not lived in crowds. Copeland, in an analysis of buying 
motives, shows that the advertisers consider the farmer to be 
highly rationalistic in his buying activities. He classifies buy- 
ing motives into the emotional and rational. Under the emo- 
tional motives he places buying for distinctiveness, for emula- 
tion, for economic emulation, for pride of personal appearance, 
for social achievement, for romance, for pleasing taste, for 
pleasure of recreation, for entertainment, and greater leisure. 
Under rational motives he places buying for handiness, for effi- 
ciency in operation and use, for dependability of quality, for 
durability, for enhancement of earnings, and for economy in 
use. His criterion of measurement is a comparison of the ad- 
vertisements appearing in general magazines, women’s maga- 
zines, and national weeklies with those appearing in farm 


* Probably the best discussion of the development and borrowing of culture 
is to be found in THorRNSTEN VEBLEN’s writings. See The Instinct of Work- 
manship, Chap.. III, and Imperial Germany, The Industrial Revolution, Chap. 
V, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1914-1915. — 

* Le Bon, Gustave, The Crowd, Chap. I, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1896. 

*Srpis, Boris, The Psychology of Suggestion, Chap. XXVII, D. Appleton 
& Company, New York, 1921. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 475 


papers. The appeal to rational motives was almost twice as 
frequent as the appeal to emotional motives among the adver- 
tisements appearing in farm papers. The reverse was true in 
the case of advertisements appearing in magazines and period- 
icals which made their chief appeals to city constituents.’ 

The country camp-meeting is about the only occasion upon 
which farmers are subjected to the conditions which make 
for crowd or mob behavior. On such occasions and under such 
conditions, they do succumb to emotionalism. Even then the 
process is slow. The time of meeting must be set when the 
farm work is slack. The meeting must be “protracted” and 
the farm community backward. Billy Sunday and similar 
evangelists no longer operate in the normal rural community. 
It is in the backward and ignorant rural community where the 
shouting and rolling demonstrations of primitive religions take 
place... Such phenomena are not to be explained so much 
by the “so-called psychology of fhe farmer,” as they are by the 
persistence of old religious superstitions, and the failure of the 
farmer to connect up his otherwise stable and independent 
course of life and thought with his system of religious thought. 

Fads, fancies, fashions, and crazes penetrate and spread in 
rural society more slowly than they do in city communities. 
Such phenomena are predicated by an aptitude to change and 
such the farmer does not have. In the first place, he does not 
hear of their existence for a long time after they have become 
current in city communities. In the second place, they have 
no apt channels over which to spread rapidly in rural areas. In 
the third place the farmer’s temperament and attitude are 
against accepting them. Crazes and fads are things with 
transient lives. If they cannot spread quickly they do not 
spread at all. The few social gatherings and infrequent social 
contacts of the farmer fail to furnish them media by which 
to spread. Furthermore, practically all the “work attitudes” 
and “religious attitudes” of the rural community taboo these 
displays of fickleness. 


1CopeLanp, M. T. Principles of Merchandising, Chap. VI, A. W. Shaw 
Company, New York, 1925. 


476 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


THE FARMER AND THE PUBLIC MIND 


The Farmer and the Public—tThe public is usually thought 
of as being, in some vague way or other, all society. Publics, 
however, would better be thought of as those groups which are 
wider in scope than face-to-face associations and less erystal- 
lized in nature than institutions. As E. 8. Bogardus says: 


The public is a quasi-temporary group. It lacks the structure 
and prescribed limits of a permanent group, and the face-to-face or 
bodily presence characteristic of assemblies or crowds. 

The rise of the public came about as a result of the modern 
development in means of communication, such as the invention of 
the printing press, the railroad, the telegraph, the telephone and 
the radio. Consequently, individuals can feel, think, and even act 
alike, without coming together either as crowds or assemblies.! 


To what extent and in what ways are farmers members of 
publics? The fact that all means of communication are fewer 
in rural than urban communities sets conditions which keep 
farmers from being members of as many different publics or 
from being as thoroughgoing members of any public as many 
urban persons are. Furthermore the dominant reign of one 
institution—the home—in the life of the farmer, and the 
severe influence of his occupation upon his time and atten- 
tion keep him from developing that frame of mind essential 
to becoming a member of numerous publics. 

Publics are sometimes fickle, approaching crowds in emotion- 
alism and transcience of attitudes. The rural population fur- 
nishes a constant stabilizing element at times when war psy- 
chology, financial depressions, or other landslides in public 
opinion are imminent. There are times when it is desirable, 
and even necessary, that the whole national population be 
woven into a simple public. Such an instance was the World 
War period. At such times, the attitudes of the remote rural 
sections are slowly mobilized for the task. The reign of home 
attitudes and private occupational attitudes gives way slowly 
to the larger public interest. The urban areas of the east, 


*Boaarpus, E. S., The Fundamentals of Social Psychology, p. 273, The 
Century Co., New York, 1924. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 477 


dominantly industrial, many of them, were willing to enter 
the World War as early as 1915. The Mid-west, dominantly 
agricultural, was not in favor of participating until months 
after war was declared. 

Until very recently publics were, and even to considerable 
extent yet are, formed out of or by means of public assemblies. 
Farmers are not so used to attending or participating in public 
assemblies as are urban people. They do not work in masses, 
do not belong to trade unions, use committee organization 
very little, have few farmers’ meetings, and so develop very lit- 
tle group spirit and collective thinking.’ 


The Farmer and Public Opinion: 


By public opinion we mean the more or less rational, collective 
judgment formed by a group regarding a situation. It is formed 
by the action and reaction of many individual judgments. It im- 
ples not so much that uniformity of opinion has been reached by 
all members of the group, or even by a majority, as that a certain 
trend and direction of the opinions and judgments of the individual 
members has been reached.? 


As Professor Cooley says: 


The unity of public opinion, like all vital unity, is one not of 
agreement but of organization, of interaction and mutual influence. 
It is a group state of mind which is more or less distinctly aware 
of itself.? 


It depends for formation upon the facilities at hand for the 
exchange of ideas and upon the processes of discussion, critic- 
ism, and other ripening and stabilizing thought processes. 

Public opinion, like individual opinion, arises out of ex- 
perience. It arises out of human adaptations, made to a con- 
stant set of forces, either social or physical. It becomes a point 
of view, handed down from the past. It becomes what is 


1For a deeper appreciation of the influence of such types of behavior see 
Foutert, M. P., The New State, Chap. II, Longmans, Green & Co., New 
York, 1920. 

*Etwoop, C. A., The Psychology of Human Society, p. 228, D. Appleton 
& Company, New York, 1925. 

*Cootny, C. H., Social Organization, pp. 11, 85, and 122, Charles Scribner’s 
Sons, New York, 1916, 


478 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


known in religious terminology as a “persuasion.” That is, it 
has an affective or emotional tone. It does not change quickly 
unless confronted with a crisis. As Walter Lippman says, 
people think in images and their images become stereotypes.’ 
These stereotypes become moulds of thought or opinion. 
When these stereotypes or moulds are broken, mental and 
emotional chaos reigns for a while. Often the conclusions 
which are firmly held were reached by a slow process of adapta- 
tion or were handed down by tradition. The premises upon 
which they are based are not known by the individual or by 
the group holding them. There is a natural aversion to giving 
them up, because no means are at hand for forming others to 
take their places. 

Public opinion is very powerful in rural communities on mat- 
ters which concern the home, the occupation and enterprise of 
farming, and the integrity of these two dominating rural in- 
terests. It is weak on matters concerning interests of wider 
scope. Concerning traditional morals, rural communities are 
very “strait-laced.” A wayward girl, a wild boy, or a broken 
family causes the individuals involved to be ostracised to a 
degree not common in city communities. National, interna- 
tional, and world issues, on the contrary, do not strike fire in 
rural opinion as quickly as in the more cosmopolitan urban 
communities. 

The subtleness and diversity of public opinion depends upon 
the facilities for the dissemination of ideas and upon the op- 
portunities for discussion. Discussion in rural communities 
is confined almost altogether to gossip, and gossip has usually 
far more to do with personal than with public issues. As was 
shown in Chap. XII, rural homes and rural communities lack 
volume and diversity of reading materials. Most rural com- 
munities are almost completely devoid of debates and discus- 
sion. It is by means of discussion that the common will is 
developed and common responsibility accepted.” Rural com- 
munities are short on opportunities for discussion. So long as 


*LippMAN, Waurer, Public Opinion, pp. 95-f, Harcourt, Brace and Horne, 
New York, 1922. 

*Fouttett, M. P., The New State, Chap. XIII, Longmans, Green & Co., 
New York, 1920, 


i i a i i el ae 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 479 


this is true they will cling rigidly to old opinions and parti- 
cipate little in the larger issues of society. 


THE CHANGING PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 


The New Rural Life-—Practically every factor or influence 
that goes to make life in rural communities different from life 
in the city is less pronounced in its influence today than it has 
been in the past. Contacts, particularly those with the out- 
side world, have been multiplied many times within the last 
generation. Farm work is continuously being reduced more 
to machine processes. The ease with which rural people can 
now travel has lessened the influence of the home in compari- 
son with other institutions. Increased educational opportuni- 
ties have introduced a larger portion of the world’s culture 
into rural life. The rapid development of science and business 
that is now taking place in farming and rural affairs is help- 
ing the farmer to catch step with others of his generation. The 
growth of cooperative enterprises and other types of farmer 
organizations is teaching him group technique. The con- 
solidation of schools is giving him a larger community. 

If the stultifying influences of the standardization and wage 
system of industry can be kept out of the farm enterprise, 
while all the things just described come into rural life, the 
open country should develop a type of individual and com- 
munity life to be greatly desired. 

The New Farmer.—As the new factors, described in the 
preceding section, come into rural life and change the mode 
of living on the farm, they also change the mode of thought 
of the farmer. Boys and girls, born and reared on farms, no 
longer feel that their destinies are sealed by rural opportuni- 
ties only. The same cultural paths, that lead new elements 
into the economic and social life of rural communities, lead 
rural people out of rural occupations and rural areas into 
other channels of life. Professor W. A. Anderson discovered, 
in a study of vocational choices of farmers’ sons, who are now 
attending North Carolina State College of Agriculture and 
Engineering (1925-1926), that only 56.1 per cent of them have 


480 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


as yet definitely made a choice of vocations. Of the 106 boys, 
constituting the 56.1 per cent positive choices, only ten have 
decided to practice farming. A total of 189 farmers’ sons, in 
the College, were included in the study. Sixty-five of them 
are taking courses in agriculture. Of these sixty-five only 
thirty, or 46.1 per cent, have made vocational choices, and 
only seven, or 1.08, per cent of them have chosen agriculture 
as a vocation. 

The easy-going explanation given for students of colleges 
of agriculture not returning to the farm is that the “college 
trains boys away from the farm.” This is unquestionably true 
to some degree. The process by which it is done is, however, 
is something to be praised rather than blamed. It is the process 
of placing them in touch with the broader aspects and oppor- 
tunities of the world. The college training process is but a 
pronounced example of the way farm people are becoming a 
part of the larger society and thus escaping from the narrow- 
ing and stultifying influences which were described in the early 
sections of this chapter. 

That the factors, which are entering rural life and leading 
farm boys and girls to look to all occupations and professions 
of life, are widespread and not confined to college influences 
alone, is indicated by a rather extensive study of occupational 
choices of high-school students, made by the Institute of 
Social and Religious Research. In its country and village 
studies it got questionnaires from about 2,000 high-school stu- 
dents in fifty-three communities. In answer to the question, 
“Would you consider farming as a life work?” 1,108 attitudes 
were given. Only 458, or 41.2 per cent, of these attitudes were 
positively in favor of farming and 650, or 58.8 per cent, were 
definitely negative. Of the 650 who expressed definite desires 
to leave the farm, 171 gave answers which showed a definite 
conception of other opportunities in society. The boys listed 
seventeen and the girls listed twenty-six other occupations or 
professions which they expected to enter.* 

From the foregoing facts, it is clear that the farm is no 
longer the culturally and socially isolated place it once was. 


* Citation supplied by advanced information, document not yet published. 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FARM LIFE 481 


The infiltration of other than farming ideas and ideals into 
rural life will continue more rapidly in the future than in the 
past. What sort of a rural life it will develop and what kind 
of a person the American farmer of the future will be are 
speculated upon in Chap. XXII. One thing is clear. He 
will be different from the farmer of yesterday and different 
from the farmer of today. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATS®RIALS 


WituiaMs, R. W., Our Rural Heritage, Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 

GarPIn, C. J., Rural Life, Chap. II, The Century Co., New York, 1918. 

Bernarp, L. L., Proceedings, of American Sociological Society, 1924-1925. 

Groves, E. R., The Rural Mind, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 
1922. 


CHAPTER XXII 
THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 
THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURE IN CIVILIZATION 


The Beginnings of Agriculture.—It has been said that, “The 
day God created the earth the occupation of agriculture be- 
gan.’ This, of course, is not true. Many long ages transpired 
between the time when man-first appeared on the earth and 
when he became even the crudest kind of a farmer. The 
time that the earliest known species of man lived is variously 
estimated to be from 250,000 to 500,000 years ago. Apparently 
at least one-half of that long period transpired before man 
domesticated either plants or animals, and certainly he could 
not be considered to be a farmer until he had accomplished 
these two things. Previous to these accomplishments, he got 
his shelter in caves and by means of other natural barriers 
against weather, climate, seasons, and wild beasts. He ob- 
tained his food supply from herbs, roots, and berries where 
they grew, from the fish and other water foods, and from 
insects and wild animals. A few so-called aboriginal peoples 
are yet living in the stage of “direct appropriation,” or what 
is sometimes called “the hunting and fishing stage,” of eco- 
nomic evolution. Agriculture in even its crudest forms ap- 
peared only when man domesticated plants and animals and 
began to cultivate and nurture them.’ 

During the first stage of agriculture, and earlier, all people 
were open-country dwellers. There were no cities. Between 
that time and the present there have been many stages of 
evolution in agriculture and there has occurred a minute divi- 
sion of labor in the production of economic goods which has 
led to the development of many non-agricultural enterprises. 

7Gras, N.S. B., A History of Agriculture, Chap. I, F. S. Crofts and Com- 


pany, New York, 1925. 
482 





THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 483 


The major results of this development of agricultural civiliza- 
tion are that modern agriculture is the product of the past 
stages of agricultural development and that it is in many 
ways conditioned by other economic enterprises which have 
grown out of it, split off from it, or developed since it began. 
The farmer’s place in civilization in the past or present cannot 
be understood nor his possible future place in civilization 
predicted except in the light of these facts. 

Space does not permit of an elaborate description or analysis 
of the evolution of agriculture. All that can be offered here 
are a few broad generalizations about the past, which will 
furnish an insight into the present. These few generaliza- 
tions are as follows: 

First, that, as more and better methods of agricultural pro- 
ductions have been discovered or developed, the increased 
products of the soil have made it possible for a greater num- 
ber of people to inhabit the earth. 

Second, that, as the agriculturists have produced greater 
surpluses of food, clothing, and shelter products, the stand- 
ards of living of all people who participated in the use of these 
products have been raised. 

Third, that, out of surplus production and the gaining of 
leisure time have developed art, literature, recreation, and 
to some extent science. 

Fourth, as the techniques and technologies of the refining 
processes have developed—the handicraft and manufacturing 
processes—many industries and many people, once located in 
the open country, have come to be located in cities. 

Fifth, today the agriculturist 1s a specialist in the produc- 
tion of raw products only, all people depending upon him for 
these products and he depending on others for practically all 
of his refined goods. 

If these generalizations are accepted as correct, it will then 
be seen that the modern farmer has a different place in civ- 
ilization than the farmers of the past had. His problems of 
the present and the future, and his place in civilization at the 
present and in the future depend upon the economic and social 
adjustments made necessary by his new position in a society 


484 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


that is far more complex and inter-dependent than it has ever 
been in the past. 

Modern Agriculture.—Karly agriculture was only an occu- 
pation. Modern farming is a business enterprise. Agricul- 
ture as an occupation consists of that body of work techniques 
and technologies by means of which farmers produce crops 
and animals. Agriculture as a business enterprise consists 
of those cost and income equations which are a part of a 
society organized and operated upon the basis of a price 
and market system. Farming as a business enterprise retains 
all of its technical work problems and has added to it the 
problems of price and marketing. 

So long as farming was a mere occupation it could be fairly 
well learned by a system of apprenticeship. Its chief task 
was to make the soil produce a sufficient amount and diversity 
of products to supply the farm family with consumption goods 
for one year at a time. The family’s supply of consumption 
goods was restricted to those products which could be grown 
and manufactured on the farm and in the home. Under these 
conditions the standard of living was sharply restricted in its 
diversity. The development of trade and commerce made 
possible an expansion of the gamut of consumption goods 
which the farm family might have. It also made possible 
a geographic division of labor in the production of farm prod- 
ucts. It became possible for farmers to grow those products 
for which they had the greatest comparative physical and 
economic advantages, sell these products in the world’s mar- 
kets, and purchase, with the money collected for them, any 
and all types of goods produced anywhere in the world. 

The coming of the industrial revolution and the develop- 
ment of trade and commerce have had drastic and far-reach- 
ing effects upon agriculture. The development of handicrafts 
first took place upon the farm. It was a natural result of the 
universal effort to make the natural and cultivated products 
of the earth yield greater utilities to mankind. The inven- 
tions which ushered in the industrial revolution made pos- 
sible the application of water and motive power to refining 
of raw products, and concentrated the refining processes at 


THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 485 


or near the sources of these types of power. These changes, 
in turn, made necessary trade and commerce. The effects 
upon agriculture were even more pronounced than the effects 
upon the refining processes. 

The migration of population from the open country to 
cities began as a result of this new economic organization 
of society. Farmers were no longer confronted with the mere 
necessity of producing sufficient food, clothing, and shelter 
supplies to meet the consumption demands of themselves. 
They were confronted with the necessity of furnishing raw 
agricultural products for a population, one-half or more who 
lived in cities and produced no raw products. They were 
confronted, also, with the opportunities to specialize in the 
production of raw products and to purchase all kinds of 
refined goods from those engaged in manufacturing. All agri- 
culture was carried on as a family enterprise. In early agricul- 
ture, farm products were planted, cultivated, harvested, and 
consumed by the individual farm family. This type of agri- 
culture continued until about four centuries ago. It persisted 
in the Middle West of the United States until about fifty 
years ago and persists to considerable extent in the isolated 
mountain areas of the nation down to the present. Jn the 
main, however, agriculture has made the transfer from a self- 
sustaining industry to that of a commercial enterprise. 

What Agriculture Is—It has just been noted that agricul- 
ture is more than an occupation; that it has, within the last 
few hundred years, become a business. But it is more even 
than a business enterprise. It is a mode of life. To the 
farmer’s mind, the occupation and science of agriculture and 
the economic problems of agriculture are measured by the 
standard of living which obtains in the open country. This, 
after all, is the true social test of agriculture. It is the aspect 
of agriculture which most concerns the people who farm. 

Farmers do not farm in order merely to produce the raw 
food, clothing, and shelter products which society needs. They 
do not farm in order to make money. Farming existed for 
centuries before the price or money standards of measuring 
the value of goods came into being. In these early eras of 


486 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


agriculture, the farmers of the world produced goods for home 
consumption and universally measured agriculture in terms 
of the standards of life which their production, plus the gen- 
eral physical and social environments, afforded. As society 
slowly but surely developed a division of labor and a system 
of exchange, agriculture came to be inter-dependent with other 
occupations. Its products were exchanged for the goods and 
services furnished by other great divisions, or occupational 
groups, of the world’s population. Farmers came to produce 
for the market and to purchase from the market. The meas- 
ure of exchange in the market was price. Agricultural effi- 
ciency, therefore, came to be measured in terms of prices of 
farm products and farm economic income. 

The transfer from producing for home consumption to pro- 
ducing for the market did not alter the fundamental pur- 
poses of farm production. These purposes are today, as they 
always have been, to obtain the greatest satisfactions possible 
while working and living on the farm. The farmer, in last 
analysis, still measures farming in terms of the types and 
amounts of satisfaction it yields to those who farm. He has 
a right to expect others to measure it by the same criterion. 

Farming then has three aspects. It is an occupation; it is a 
business enterprise; and it is a mode of life. The task of the 
farmer, in a society which is universally organized on a price 
and market basis, is to convert the occupation of farming— 
the production of raw farm products—into economic divi- 
dends, and to convert economic dividends into farm standards 
of living. 


THE FARMER IN A COMMERCIAL WORLD 


Farming Becomes a Commercial Enterprise-—Society is 
more definitely and more universally organized today upon 
the basis of its commerce than in any other way. Farming 
existed so long before commerce developed that agriculture 
has yielded slowly to the commercial régime. Gradually, how- 
ever, the transfer must be, and is being, made. The two most 
universal sets of adjustments which, today, every farmer must 


THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 487 


make are to the physical elements, such as the soil, climate, 
and the nature of crops and animals; and to the markets in 
which the products of the farm are sold. The modern farmer 
must be both a scientist and a business man, if he is to be a 
successful entrepreneur. 

Every known method and accomplishment of exact and 
practical farm science is today laid at the farmer’s feet in 
helping him to make his adjustments to the physical ele- 
ments just mentioned and in teaching him the latest facts and 
practices in the nurture of plants and animals. Literally thou- 
sands of well-trained specialists serve him as agents and 
assistants in these tasks. But, in his adjustments to the stern 
and complex facts and conditions of the commercial world, 
into which he has been thrown heels first in the last half 
century, he is largely left to flounder. 

What Is This Commercial World?—-What sort of adjust- 
ments must the farmer make to the commercial régime? What 
must he know and what must he do to catch step with it? 
It is a world of prices and markets, an economic régime in 
which dividends on all divisions of society’s labors are de- 
clared. The adjustments which he must make to it are those 
which have to do with costs of production, bargaining power 
in the markets of the world, and dividends to be awarded for 
economic accomplishment. What he must know is how mar- 
ket prices are made, and the thing he must do is to put him- 
self in a position, both intellectually and physically, to help 
make them. Failing to do this, he will fail in everything else 
which goes to make him a successful farmer. The farmer 
is living on a lower standard of living than his brother entre- 
-preneurs in other walks of life. He wants more dividends 
with which to fill in the gap which has widened in the last 
century between his standard of living and the standards 
of living of those engaged in urban occupations. He knows 
that all dividends are declared in the market place and he 
therefore seeks to make adjustments to the commercial world, 
of which the market is the heart and core. The reasons why 
he has not accomplished apt adjustments in the price and 
market régime, although he has been in it for two genera- 


488 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


tions, and in some sections of the country for seven genera- 
tions, are, because he is more a creature of custom and his 
occupation is more largely one of apprenticeship than that 
of any other entrepreneur; because he has been considered 
as only a tiller of the soil; and, above all, because his trained 
leaders have become confused in processes of production tech- 
nique, to the end that he has been taught much more suc- 
cessfully to accomplish his task of feeding the world than he 
has to care well for his own family and community and to 
build an adequate civilization in the rural sections of the 
nation. 

If we were still living in the day when the farm family 
got practically its whole standard of living out of its own 
herds and fields and flocks, then the farmer’s task of adjust- 
ments would be complete when he had learned “to make two 
blades of grass grow where one previously grew.” That day 
was a part of the early life of men yet living, but it is now 
universally past for them and all other farmers. The farmer 
of today purchases his standard of living from the ends of 
the earth. What he purchases and, therefore, largely what 
he has, depends upon the dividends he collects in the markets 
in which he sells his raw products. He not only demands 
and has a right to the hundreds of things which have only 
recently become a part of our general middle-class standards 
of living, but he must purchase clothes, implements, furni- 
ture, flour, and a hundred other things which were at one time 
made on the farm but which now, in the economy of special- 
ization and division of labor, have slipped away to the city, 
leaving his time free to specialize in the production of raw 
products. 

Farmers Attempt to Meet the Tests of the Commercial 
Régime—Let us not imagine that the American farmer has 
failed to recognize his changed status or to see that adjust- 
ments need to be made. He is today making his economic 
demands heard in no uncertain terms. Immediately follow- 
ing the Civil War he made his first outstanding attempt to 
work out the adjustment to the commercial régime which 
was just then coming into America at full tide. The Granger 


THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 489 


movement of the early seventies, which swept into its ranks 
over 700,000 individuals, set up all kinds of business enter- 
prises and even organized a half-dozen new political parties, 
was an attempt at adjustment. The Agricultural Wheel, the 
old Louisiana Farmers’ Union, and the two Farmers’ Alliances — 
of the eighties and early nineties were continuations of the 
same attempt. This consolidated movement mobilized up- 
wards of 4,000,000 people who sought by economic and polit- 
ical organizations to accomplish the needed adjustments. 
These giant “ground swells” among the farmers of the nation 
have been looked upon as both foolish and futile. And indeed 
so they were to some degree. They were, nevertheless, though 
to some degree unconscious, attempts on the part of the farmer 
to become an integral part of the commercial régime. They 
did not end with the death of the Farmers’ Alliance and the 
populist episode. The Farmers’ Union, the Gleaners, the re- 
juvenated Grange, the American Society of Equity, the Farm- 
ers’ Equity Union, and more recently the Farm Bureau, and 
the great commodity cooperatives have kept up the attempt 
to make this needed adjustment to the price and market 
régime. As a matter of fact, farmers are today almost uni- 
versally organized, in one way or another, for economic action. 
The day is rapidly approaching when a majority of all Amer- 
ican farmers will be members of one or more of these economic 
organizations. These organizations constitute conscious or 
unconscious, direct or indirect, attempts to adjust the enter- 
prise of farming to the conditions and practices of the modern 
commercial world. 

Farmers work continually under economic hardships. At 
times, such as that following the Civil War, during the panic 
of 1873, and following the World War, they worked under 
particularly hard conditions. It is at times like these that 
they have organized for specific economic action. Each time 
an agrarian movement has arisen its magnitude has been 
greater, its area of operation has been wider, and its attain- 
ments have been greater than those of any previous move- 
ment. This is because each has had the experience of 
previous movements to guide it and because it is made up 


490 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


of an ever more intelligent agrarian population. It is prob- 
able that the experience has now been wide enough, and 
varied enough, and the intelligence of the farming class 1s 
now high enough, that our present set of farmers’ economic 
organizations, or some immediately succeeding set of agrarian 
organizations, will be a permanent part of our nation’s eco- 
nomic machinery. 

Two generations ago farmers did not belong to organiza- 
tions of any kind except major social institutions and tradi- 
tional political parties. One generation ago only a few of 
the more radical belonged to the Wheel, the Alliance, and sim- 
ilar organizations. ‘Today a majority of the farmers belong 
to one or more farmers’ organizations. They are local, county, 
state, and national. They are unofficial and official. They are 
supported by subscription, fees, and taxation. But they are 
all a part of an agrarian movement—a movement that has 
arisen inevitably out of the fact that farmers recognize that 
they are performing a definite, essential, and abiding part of 
society’s labor; the fact that the development of industrial 
technologies—especially transportation technologies—has con- 
verted farming into a commercial enterprise and thrown 
farmers into a price and market régime; the fact that the 
enlightenment of the farmer has reached such a status that he 
knows what is happening in other sections of the population 
and, therefore, knows that he is not a part of prosperous and 
polite society; the fact that he has observed that other sec- 
tions of population, particularly those that have more or less 
common economic interests, have gained the ends which they 
sought most quickly by means of organized economic action. 

The facts just stated are natural products of social evolu- 
tion in all Western civilization. They are part of our de- 
veloping social organization. The principles and major prac- 
tices which the farmers’ movement seems thus far to have 
developed are as follows: (1) It is made up of farmers. 
(2) They are organized for action, not mere talk or pro- 
test. (3) They are developing or acquiring the technologies 
with which to work. (4) They are cognizant of a need which 
is perpetual and which promises to become permanent unless 


THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 491 


they themselves remedy it. (5) They are systematically at- 
tempting to discover the facts and analyze out the factors 
in their problems. (6) They are trying no new economic or 
political machinery. Rather they are borrowing those pieces 
of machinery which have been well tested in these two major 
lines of social activity and have proved their efficiency in 
getting results for their manipulators. 

The agrarian movement is historically parallel to the labor 
movement and to the industrial revolution. It represents a 
growing class consciousness and the forming of a definite 
economic group. The rapid and drastic transformation which 
is taking place in farm operations, particularly in the con- 
duct of farm business, is similar to, or a part of, the in- 
dustrial revolution. The difference between the agrarian 
revolution and the industrial revolution is that it was the 
advent of power machinery and the mobilization of capital 
which ushered in the industrial revolution, while it is the ap- 
plication of merchandizing to farm commodities and the 
mobilization of farm credit which is ushering in the agrarian 
movement. Wages and hours were the needed adjustments 
in the industrial revolution. Prices and markets are the 
needed adjustments in the agrarian revolution.’ 

How Shall Farmers Make Their Needed Adjustments to the 
Price and Market Régime?—lIt is impossible for the modern 
farmer to withdraw from the price and the market régime. 
He lives and works in a world that is universally organized 
on these bases. It is needless to recount the economic and 
social advantages which the farmer and all others gain be- 
cause of this fact. Suffice it to say that the farmer must 
come fully into the commercial world. Thus far he has come 
into it without either the knowledge or the organization with 
which to cope with its problems. It must be patent, then, 
that the way to help him make his adjustments to it is to 
help him get the economic information and economic organi- 
zation with which to operate successfully in it. Every agency, 
voluntary or official, which is seeking to help the farmer to 


1Taytor, Cart C., “Organizing Farms for Economic and Political Action,” 
Proceedings, American Sociological Society, University of Chicago Press, 1924. 


492 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


be efficient and successful in his task of farming must furnish 
him information and education in these two fields. 

All these agencies are beginning to attack the farmer’s com- 
mercial problems to some extent. Most of them are proud 
of the beginning they have made. It is a question whether 
they would be, if an honest and intelligent appraisal were 
made of the emphasis which they are giving to these prob- 
lems in comparison with the emphasis which they are giving 
to some other problems in agriculture. The farmer on his 
farm and the farmer’s son at college are receiving from ten 
to twenty-five times as much instruction in soils, physical 
production, and plant and animal diseases as they are re- 
celving in instruction in costs, prices, credits, markets, and 
economic and social organization. 

The farmer’s most dominant and most difficult problems 
today are the problems which confront him in his commer- 
cial relationships. They are more complex than any of his 
problems of production. They are more difficult to under- 
stand and they are far more difficult to influence. A knowl- 
edge of them is much less apt to be assimilated or learned 
through apprenticeship than any other phase of successful 
farming. The adjustments must be made by way of economic 
education. The issue is so important and so pressing, and 
has been so for a generation, that fully one-half the time, 
money and energy of the agencies of agricultural education 
and leadership should be given to helping the farmer make 
an honest, intelligent, and successful adjustment to the 
world’s price and market system. 

The farmers of the world are not producing more raw ma- 
terials than it is good for the world to have. But they are 
violating practically every law of the decalogue in business 
or, at least, are failing to use these laws to the ends that they 
are failing to collect economic dividends on their division of 
society’s labor, and consequently failing to have the money 
with which to purchase a modern standard of living or to 
build a satisfactory rural civilization. Furthermore, their 
leaders are largely those who are following in the rut of teach- 
ing them how to produce more increments of farm products, 


THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 493 


leaving them ignorant of how to collect dividends upon what 
they do, can, and will produce. Farmers have used night 
riding to carry their economic ends. They have attempted 
to eliminate many legitimate business enterprises. They have 
been moved to both sadness and madness in attempts to get 
into organized action. They and their leaders have tried the 
idea of a third party and failed because third parties do not yet 
succeed in the United States, and because party allegiance is 
too indirect and intangible to guarantee the continuous loy- 
alty of farmers. They have sought to alter major economic 
practices and organizations by legislation and mere protest. 
They have sought to raise prices by urging cheap money and 
by legislating dollar wheat and ten-cent cotton. Notwith- 
standing all these things, and in fact partly because of them, 
they have reached a stage of thought and action that makes 
them ready and anxious to learn, if only the teachers may be 
had. 

Modern farming is a commercial enterprise. One of its 
major sets of adjustments is to the price and market régime. 
If these adjustments are not made through the development 
and spread of price and market intelligence, they will be made 
through more revolutionary methods, such as third parties, 
farmer revolts, and class conflict such as have typified the 
adjustments in the industrial field. More tragic yet would 
be the contemplation of these adjustments not being made 
by either method with the consequent development of an 
inadequate and unworthy rural civilization in America. 


THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN RURAL LIFE 


Its Two Great Possibilities —American agricultural civiliza- 
tion can either become unique or it can follow the path of 
practically all other agricultural civilizations. Agricultural 
civilization is more or less a tragedy throughout the whole 
world. In culture and standards of living, it lags behind 
urban civilization in most of the nations of the world. Landed 
aristocracies, where they yet exist, are largely an absentee 
landlord class. Where ownership is still retained by those 


494 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


who till the soil, the rural civilization is, In most cases, a 
peasant civilization. It is only in young countries, such as 
the United States, Canada, Australia, and the South Amer- 
ican nations that farm operators approach either the financial 
or the social status of the most élite and prosperous classes 
in society. The trend in the United States is undeniably 
away from this condition. It is true that men and women 
born on American farms one or two generations ago have not 
failed to rise in the scale of financial and social success. Few 
of them, however, have done so by remaining on the farm. 
They have left the farm for other professions which have led 
them into city life. 

When millions of persons pick up “root and branch” and 
leave the environment in which they were born and reared, 
there can be no denying that stern forces are at work which, 
to the minds of those who move, portend serious consequences 
unless some drastic action is taken. Nor should we lose sight 
of the fact that these stern forces are operating on those who 
stay on the farm as well as those who move away from it. 

Hundreds of thousands of young people, who are just enter- 
ing occupations and professions or who have recently started 
in life for themselves, choose the city as their field of greatest 
opportunity. The fact that a conscious choice is exercised 
in practically all such cases helps to explain somewhat the 
type of persons the rural districts are losing. Slow-minded 
people do not quickly take up new enterprises. They stay 
on the farm where the tasks of life are learned by apprentice- 
ship and assimilation. A man who never reaches the stage 
of analyzing his economic and social outlook sufficiently to 
raise the issue of its comparative advantages with other out- 
looks is likely to be the very individual who perpetuates cus- 
tom farming, who makes it difficult to get the farm enterprise 
on a scientific and business basis, and who accepts without 
protest a low standard of living on the farm. Those who are 
most wide-awake, who read most, who seek cultural and busi- 
ness education, or who most want to get on in the world, are 
the very ones who not only know about the higher yielding 
dividend enterprises of society, but are just the type of per- 





THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 495 


sons who believe in themselves enough to volunteer for the 
financial battle. Those who are unwilling to put up with 
poor schools, poor churches, poor houses, little recreation, and 
few social contacts are altogether too often the persons who go 
to the city and battle for these things, and thereby help the 
city to get them, while those who make no such demands stay 
in the country and lower the level of competition by going 
without such things. 

If all the brains and the initiative which have been born 
or developed on American farms, but are now guiding and 
furnishing dynamics for business enterprises in our cities, 
were to be turned back to the farms, some of the things which 
will be mentioned in the conclusion of this book would come 
to pass in less than half a generation. 

Agricultural Efficiency and Rural Welfare-—The increased 
efficiency of the farmer himself, due to the coming of science 
and machinery during the last hundred years, has been very 
marked, making possible the production of a much greater 
volume of farm products with practically no increase in farm 
labor foree.’ The result has been that agricultural efficiency 
has steadily increased while the percentage of our national 
population engaged in agriculture has steadily decreased. The 
problems of agricultural efficiency and rural welfare ought 
to be two aspects of the same thing in a well-organized social 
order. There ought to be some means discovered by which 
the benefits resulting from increased efficiency could be gen- 
erously reflected in the well-being of those responsible for 
the economic gain. This has not been true to any consider- 
able degree in American agriculture. 

American farms are producing more in annual volume of 
products than at any previous time. American farmers are 
producing more per man than any farm population on earth. 
Furthermore, they are producing more per acre than any pre- 
vious generation of American farmers has ever produced. 
With a greater gross production, a greater per capita produc- 
tion, and a greater per acre production of the very goods 
which the world needs most, it is a peculiar situation indeed 


*See Chap. IV, 


496 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


that a farm standard of living should be consistently and 
perpetually below that of the city. It is argued, by some 
students of the agricultural situation, that the solution to 
such a situation is to allow farm production to lag until the 
population of the world cries for food and cries in terms of 
higher prices. If our present price system worked by divine 
fiat, there would be no other solution. But such is not the 
case, and one is, therefore, warranted in looking for other 
solutions. 

The farmer’s task in society at large is to grow raw prod- 
ucts to feed and clothe the world. In order to do this ade- 
quately there are now none too many farmers. His task, as 
seen from his own viewpoint, is to feed, clothe, and shelter 
the members of his own family and, in addition to this, to 
guarantee them opportunities for health, education, recrea- 
tion, and community life. In order to do this, he must collect 
more dividends out of the markets to which he sells his raw 
products. 

This dilemma does not resolve itself into the issue of starv- 
ing himself just a little more in order that others may live, or 
starving others just a little more in order that he may live. 
It is a problem of the price system and the economic and social 
theories growing out of it. By economic education and eco- 
nomic group organizations, the farmers of the nation must 
put themselves into a position where they can know the 
“mysteries of the pecuniary calculus” as well as the mysteries 
of soil and seed. They must place themselves in a position 
to reap the same sort of rewards that corporate businesses 
have accomplished by means of consciously organized eco- 
nomic power and increased economic enlightenment. This is 
not an easy task. It is the task of introducing and inculcating 
big business methods into agriculture. This task has been ac- 
complished by a slow accumulation of knowledge, which began 
with the rise of trade and commerce and developed rapidly 
in city enterprises after the advent of the industrial revo- 

*East, E. M., Mankind at the Crossroads, Chap. IV and VI, Charles 


Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1923; and THompson, W. S., Population a Study 
in Malthusianism, Columbia University Press, 1915. 


THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 497 


lution. It will develop slowly in the field of agriculture for 
two chief reasons: first, because agricultural production be- 
comes organized in large proportions only at the point of 
marketing; and second, because the trained leaders in agri- 
culture are spending most of their time, energy, and money 
in working on the occupational or technical production prob- 
lems of agriculture rather than on the business problems of 
agriculture. Until this task is accomplished, however, anyone 
is justified in challenging the right of anyone else to assert 
that present low farm income is a sign that 10 per cent, or 
any other percentage, of our present farmers should leave the 
farms, cease to produce some of the prime necessities of all 
life, and become hired manual laborers of the money makers 
of the world. 

As the development of agricultural efficiency advances, as 
farmers become capable of producing greater volumes of raw 
products with fewer farmers, there confront them three pos- 
sible ultimate depositories for the gains of their increased 
capacities: first, to let the gains of their improvements drift 
into higher land values; second, to let the results of their 
greater efficiency drift into the improvement of city life; and 
third, to discover knowledge and power by which they can 
convert their agricultural gains into economic dividends and 
their economic dividends into rural standards of living. 

There has developed in the United States, because of two 
centuries of exceptional land opportunities, what might be 
called a “land speculation complex.’ American farmers hold 
a traditional belief that all of them will some day own farms. 
They believe that it is inevitable that land values will con- 
tinue to rise indefinitely. These two beliefs have caused 
increased land values to absorb a large proportion of the 
economic gains of American agriculture. There has also 
developed in the United States what might be called “an 
urban complex,” which leads practically all persons of the 
nation, who seek culture, leisure time pursuits, and all other 
social desiderata, to drift cityward. The belief that city life 
is, and must be, better or at least more satisfying than rural 
life, causes many of the economic gains in agriculture to bear 


498 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


fruit in comparatively high urban standards of living but in 
comparatively low rural standards of living. 

The question of whether American rural civilization will 
develop into a peasant civilization or even into a tenant and 
hired-man civilization depends upon whether we develop a 
“rural life complex” which will work to the end of seeing 
that agricultural economic gains fruit in enhanced rural 
standards of living. This complex will have to be composed 
of two chief traits; first, a knowledge of the fact that prices 
and economic dividends are products of economic and social 
organization; and second, that rural life, if the economic 
returns can be assured, can be made more wholesome, more 
creative, less stressful, and more satisfying than city life. 

The Tests of Rural Progress—Progress, to most persons’ 
minds, is a vague thing. No attempt will be made here to 
define it in absolute terms. What will be done is to discuss 
a few of the criteria which are quite universally accepted as 
measures of modern social progress and apply these criteria to 
American rural life. 

The rural standard of living was discussed in some detail 
in Chap. VI. The eight standards for measuring human 
satisfactions were there stated to be, food, clothing, housing, 
health, education, religion, recreation, and social contacts. 
The first four of these measure chiefly physical satisfactions. 
The last four measure cultural satisfactions. Whether cor- 
rectly or not, society has come to accept these as criteria of 
social efficiency. Measured by any one or all of these criteria, 
rural society has advanced. When compared to urban society, 
however, it has lagged. The lag is most pronounced in cul- 
tural attainments and cultural facilities and, whether wisely 
or not, we have come to measure civilization more in terms of 
these cultural satisfactions than we do in terms of the physical 
satisfactions. It is not enough to make gains over previous 
standards of living. Rural society is a part of civilization and 
its gains in social well-being must keep pace with the best in 
other sections of our society or relatively it is losing ground. 


The accomplishments of socialization, discussed in Chap. | 


X XI, are quite universally accepted as measures of progress. 





7 
: 
| 
\ 
} 


en 


THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 499 


It is by the process of socialization that individual personality 
is enhanced and community life accomplished. Human life is 
lived largely by means of, and for the purpose of association. 
It is out of human contacts that the greatest pleasures come. 
The dire isolation of pioneer rural life has been greatly miti- 
gated by means of modern methods of communication. Here 
again, however, when compared with city life, the rural inhab- 
itant lives under continual handicaps. With the exception of 
the family association, the rural dweller has comparatively 
few institutional associations. Communication by means of 
social gatherings, public meetings, the press, the telephone, and 
business contacts are all restricted in comparison with what 
they are in city life. Community life, in terms of the play- 
ground and the neighborhood, is meagre, and as Professor 
Cooley says, these “primary associations are fundamental in 
forming the social nature and ideals of the individual.” + In 
primitive society, and even in early American colonial society, 
the rural neighborhood or community constituted an actual 
face-to-face group. The fusion of personalities, which Cooley 
describes as the essence of human nature, has probably been 
sacrificed to a great extent in city life, because of the imper- 
sonal life that characterizes city persons. But in rural life 
it has been even more completely sacrificed by the break up of 
the old neighborhood life and the failure to replace it by any 
other face-to-face association. 
To quote again from Professor Cooley: 


Life in the primary (face-to-face) groups gives rise to social 
ideals which, as they spring from similar experiences, have much in 
common throughout the human race. And these naturally become 
the motive and test of social progress. Out of them we get our 
notions of love, freedom, justice, and the like, which we are ever 
applying to social institutions.? 


In the three primary associations, listed by Cooley—the 
family, the playground, and the neighborhood—the rural com- 
1Cootry, C. H., Social Organization, p. 23, Charles Scribner’s Son, New 


York, 1916. 
2 Ibid, p. 32. 


500 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


munity gains over the city community because of its more 
stable family life, but loses because of its less apt play and 
neighborhood life. The remedy is obviously for rural com- 
munities to gain the benefits of these last two by providing 
themselves with the facilities which will furnish them. 

As civilization has advanced leisure has increased. Rural 
life has gained neither its share of leisure time nor facilities 
for the constructive use of leisure. Our complex of urban life 
idealization has led us largely to eliminate the open country 
as a place of leisure. Those who contend that we have too 
many farmers seem to assume that all the leisure classes and 
all leisure time are natural parts of city life but are unwar- 
ranted in a scheme of rural social existence. In many ways, 
the development of leisure plays equal part with the develop- 
ment of economic surplus in promoting cultural accomplish- 
ment. Out of its attainment have come art, literature, and 
science. And this, more than superior capacity, probably 
explains why the urban population, rather than rural life, fur- 
nishes more of the persons accomplished in these cultural 
endeavors. The country with its open spaces living things, 
landscapes and opportunities for contemplation and meditation 
ought to furnish a fertile environment for accomplishment in 
these fields, if only it can accomplish freedom from deadening 
work fatigue, escape from the borderline of economic poverty, 
place itself in contact with the process of socialization, and de- 
velop a conviction about its superior natural advantage for the 
constructive use of leisure time. 

Civilization, unlike institutions, does not consist of the 
lengthened shadows of great men. Nevertheless, rural progress 
depends mightily upon leadership, and the whole régime of 
agriculture and rural life has been so cast in the past as to 
develop few leaders. Professor Gillette names the “prime re- 
quisites of a productive rural leadership” as “the power of 
initiative, organizing ability, sympathy with human aims, 
trained intelligence, and vision and outlook.” } 

Rural life has had very little statesmanship dedicated to its 


*GueTtz, J. M., Rural Sociology, p. 516, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1922. 


tae i eee ee lel 


THE FARMER AND CIVILIZATION 501 


cause. It has given birth to, reared, and partly educated many 
of the great leaders in society; but few of these leaders have re- 
mained in the open country or dedicated their talents and 
efforts to the upbuilding of rural civilization. 

Let us take Professor Gillette’s requisite of leadership and 
attempt to understand why rural life has not been apt in de- 
veloping and retaining leaders. The individual enterprise of 
farming, rural isolation, and the early participation of chil- 
dren in the farm work develop a high degree of initiative in 
the average rural-reared individual. This is about the only 
requisite of leadership that is encouraged by rural life. Or- 
ganizing ability is little developed because economically, so- 
cially, and politically organized activities are few in rural com- 
munities. Sympathy with human aims is generally confined to 
the cardinal virtues of individual and family conduct. The 
aims of wider human associations and accomplishments are 
absent, because of the lack of participation in the cosmopol- 
itan life of society. Trained intelligence has in the past been 
lacking to a great extent because of the prevailing habit of 
learning how to farm by means of apprenticeship, rather than 
by blue prints and scientific analysis which have long been 
the schemes of training in industries and the professions. Vision 
and outlook have been lacking because of the lack of opportu- 
nity to participate in the large life of society and thus a failure 
to understand the relation of agriculture to the general social 
organization. 

Thus far in our analysis the outlook for rural society seems 
dark. It need not be. Leaders do not lead individuals, as such, 
except in the case of mobs. They are, so to speak, the entre- 
preneurs of organizations. The cue to rural progress is rural 
organization. Statesmanship can not function, or even de- 
velop, without a conscious organization of people and interests. 
Rural society must become conscious of its existence, its prob- 
lems, its possibilities, and its aims. It must organize its pri- 
mary groups on a neighborhood basis; its institutional groups 
on a community basis; its economic groups on a market basis; 
and, through these and other organizations, place itself in a 
position to participate and cooperate in the larger cultural life 


502 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 


of civilization. These attainments cannot be accomplished 
by training men and women merely in the technique and tech- 
nologies of the occupation of agriculture. It must be done by 
training them in the knowledge and conduct of their economic 
affairs, and in a knowledge of and conduct of their inter-de- 
pendent economic life. It must not stop short of training them 
in a knowledge of their social relationships and in furnishing 
them with the community and social organization tools by 
means of which they can and may obtain the more subtle and 
more desired personal and social satisfactions of modern civili- 
zation. 


SELECTED COLLATERAL SOURCE MATERIALS 


Gras, N.S. B., A History of Agriculture, F. S. Crofts and Company, New 
York, 1925. 

Scumipt and Ross, Economic History of American Agriculture, The Mac- 
millan Company. 

Gittette, J. M., Rural Sociology, Part VII, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1922. 

ButrterFieLD, K. L., The Farmer, The New Day. 

Quick, H., The Real Trouble with the Farmer, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 
Indianapolis, 1924. 





INDEX 


Accidents, on the farm, 74-75, 342- 
343 
Adams, 
Act, 452 
H. B., 398 
Adult education, 326-327 
Age, 
Distribution of rural population, 
40 
Of commerce, 385-492 
Agrarian, 
Movements, 442 
Parties and politics, 444-447 
Agricultural, 
College, 6 
Education, 258 
Frontier, 23 
Journal, The, 259-264 
Legislation, 449-451, 458 
Policies, 440-448 
Agriculture, 
As an enterprise, 134, 486 
As a mode of life, 49-50 
As an occupation, 73-74 
Future of American, 493-495 
Modern, 484-485 
Types of, 83-85 
What it is, 485-486 
American Society of Equity, 489 
Allen, H.8., 103 
Alliance, Farmers’, 442-444 
Anderson, W. A., 479-480 
Andrews, C. M., 398, 423 
Animals, influence on mind _ of 
farmer, 53 
Antrin, 8. B. and I. A., 283 
Art, 
Getting into rural life, 389-391 
Getting rural life into, 391-392 
Need of in rural life, 378 
Objects of, 378-388 
Role of in rural life, 376-377 
Scenic, 378-381 
Social, 381-388 
Arvold, A., 386-388 


503 


Atkinson, 
M. M., 202-203 
R. A., 884-885 
Attitudes, 
Influence of climate, weather, etc., 
on, 463-465 
Farmers’, 424 
Religious, 469 
Urban-rural, 427 
Work, 361 
Automobiles, 
Influence in community meetings, 
153 
Mode of transportation, 151-153 
Number in United States, 152 


Bailey, L. H., 26, 272 

Bernard, L. L., 481 

Betts, G. H., 808, 314 

Bing, P. C., 264-265 

Bizzell, W. B., 161, 166 

Black, J. D., 60, 414 

Bogardus, E. E., 466, 472, 476 

Borglum, G., 376 

Boys and girls clubs, 277-278 

Branson, E. C., 389-390 

Bricker, G. A., 220 

Brim, D. G., 306 

Bruce, A. A., 459 

Brunner, de, S., 230, 242, 370 

Buck, S., 4438 

Burgess, E. W., 465, 471 

Burr, W., 272 

Burrett, M. C., 409 

Business, 
Methods on farm, 124-125 
Relation of farming to others, 46- 

49 

Butterfield, K. L., 11, 18, 37, 191- 

192, 255 


Campbell, M., 319 
Capper, A., 449-451 
Carney, M., 410 
Carver, T. N., 31 


504 


Channing, A., 198 

Chapin, R. C., 119 

Chautauqua, 282 

Child, 
Life on the farm, 195-200 
Labor, 197-200 

Chocherson, B. H., 409-410 

Church, 
A social institution, 239-240 
Abandonment, 219-221 
Adequate, 241-253 
Attendance, 219 
Decline, 213 
Equipment, 229-230, 247 
Financial support, 230-233, 247 
Function of, 212-214 
Membership, 218-218, 222-223 
Leadership, 223-229, 236-239, 249- 

251 . 


Programs, 225-227, 251-253 
Class consciousness, of farmers, 429 
Clopper, E. N., 211, 361 
Communication, 
Agencies of, 132-1383 
Significance im rural life, 131-f. 
Community, 
Buildings, 418-420 
Centers, 416-420 
Constructed, 413 
Controls, 404-406 
Councils, 411 
Early American, 398-400 
Incorporated, 412-413 
Movement, 399-400 
Need of larger rural, 402-404 
Organization, 406-408, 414-415 
Pioneer, 399 
Universality of, 395-397 
Village, 398 
Conflicts, 
Land values and rural standard of 
living, 103-104 
Urban-rural, 424 
Contacts, 
Closer urban-rural, 20 
Desire for on part of farmers, 16, 
54 


Increased, 24 
Cook, J. H., 324-825, 410 
Cooley, C. H., 477-499 
Cooperation, 
As “Rural Problem,” 17 
Enterprises, 408-410 
Need of, 483 
Urban-rural, 429-434 


INDEX 


Copeland, M. T., 475 
Country life association, American, 
27 


Country life commission, American, 
26-27, 33 

Country weekly, 264-268 

County agents, 277-279 

Crowe, M. F., 192, 199 

Cubberley, E. P., 294-295, 311 

Culturization, 471-475 

Culture, 472-474 

Curtis, H. §., 375 


Dakota Farmer, the, 381-382 

Davenport, C. B., 332 

Davis, E. E., 174, 300-301 

Death Rates, 330 

Division of labor, 21 

Douglas, H. P., 370, 412-413, 423, 
430, 437-438, 457-458 

Dudgeon, M. §., 275 


East, E. M., 321 
Economic basis of social problems, 


Education, 
Adult, 326-327 
Agencies of, 257 
Agricultural, 258 
By radio, 149 
Community, 327 
High School, 322-325 
Must be progressive, 309-310 
Purpose of rural, 284-285 
Rural, 258 
Through demonstration, 276-280, 
325 
Efficiency, 
Agricultural, 495-498 
From farmers’ point of view, 35- 
36 
From national point of view, 33- 


Problem of rural, 495-498 
Eggleston and Bruire, 321 
Ellwood, C. A., 477 
Ely, A. T., 93 
Employment Agencies, 63 
Engel, F., 118-119 
Eetting, E., 398 
Extension, 

Bureaus of cities, 47 

Education, 149 


Faber, H., 334 
Fairs, 280-281 


INDEX 


Family, 
An economic unit, 189-190 
A social institution, 186-188 
A social unit, 190-191 
Uniqueness of rural, 188-189 
Farm, 
Journal, the, 275 
Self-sufficient, 20-21 
Size of in U.S., 83-85 
Farm Bureau, 449-451, 489 
“Farm Bloc,’ 449-451 
Farmer-Labor party, 445 
Farmers’ Equity Union, 489 
Farmers’ Union, 399, 418, 489 
Farmer’s Wife, The, 209-210 
Farming, 
As a business, 48-49 
As a national enterprise, 43-45 
As a mode of life, 49-54 
As an occupation, 73-74 
Types of, 43-44 
Fatigue, 51, 53 
Fenn, F. W., 152 
Field, projects, 8-9 
Fisk, G. W., 411 
Follett, M. P., 477, 478 
Forces of nature, 30-31, 51-53 
Ford, W. E., 175 
Fought, H. W., 292, 303 
Frysinger, G., 206-207 


Galpin, C. J., 39-40, 390-391, 405, 
416, 481, 462-465 

Gaston, H. E., 445 

Gibbs, W. S., 126 

Gill, C. O., and Pinchot, G., 216-217, 
219, 233, 236-237 

Gillette, J. M., 11, 101, 154, 192, 
417, 500, 501 

Gleaners, 409, 489 

Government, 
Local, 455-459 
National, 445-453 
State, 453-455 

Grange, 409, 418, 442-443, 489 

Gras, N.S. B., 482 

Gray, L. C., 414 

Greely, W. B., 94 

Green, R. G., 199-200 

Groves, E. R., 11, 481 


Hamsun, K., 461 
Hargreaves, J. R., 411 
Harris, H. F., 348 


505 


Hatch Act, 452 
Hayes, A. W., 409, 418, 430-434 
Health, 
And farm work, 341-342 
Comparison of rural and urban, 
330-333 
Mental, 343-346 
Notions about, 328-329 
Public, 347-348 
Rural advantages and disadvan- 
tages, 529-330 
School, 436 
Weak spots in rural life, 333-341 
Hill, L. 8., 359 
Hoffman, F. L., 333, 348 
Holmes, G. K., 79 
Home, 
Agencies for improving, 206 
As social institution, 186-188 
Conveniences, 203-206 
Demonstration work, 206-207 
Ideals for, 209-210 
Uniqueness of rural, 188 
Hospitals, 346-347 
House, 
As object of art, 379-380 
Standards, 202 
The farm, 200-202 
Towns, 436-437 
Yard, 202-203 
Howe, F. E., 185 


Ideals, church must develop, 235 
Illegitimacy, 238 
Illiteracy, 286 
Immigrants, distribution of, 64 
Industrialization, 15, 20-21, 42 
Industries on farm, 34-35, 37, 45-47 
Insanity, 345-346 
International relations, 46 
Inter-urbans, 136-137 
Institutions, 
Church as, 212-213, 239-241 
For promoting agriculture, 18, 
25-27 
Influence of tenancy on, 174-176 
School as, 284-289 
Isolation, 
As rural problem, 16 
Influence on personality, 
465-466 
Influence on school, 301-302 
Problem of Chapter VII 


131, 


506 


Jennings, H. S., 350 
Jensen, A. S., 284-286 
Johnson, O. R., 175 


Kelly, E., 409 

Kimball, A. M., 417 
Kile, O. M., 409 
Kirkpatrick, E. L., 126 
Knapp, S. A., 277-278 
Koch, F., 386 

Kolb, J. H., 417, 481 


Labor, 
Domestic, 57-58, 64-65 
Farm, Chapter IV 
Manual, 65-66, 73 
Organizations, 58-65 
Problems, 58-65 
Seasonal demands, 57, 77 
Sources of farm, 55-57 
Standards, 71 
Laboratory projects, 8 
Laborers, 
Farm, 58 
Specialization of, 62 
Wages of, 61-62 
LaFollette, 445-446 
Land, 
And community social structure, 
82-86 
And society, Chapter V 
Disposal of, 89-94 
Movement of population on, 41 
National policy, 96-99 
Ownership, 101, 103, 105-106 
Peculiar influence in United 
States, 86-94, 104 
Present situation, 94-96 
Reclamation, 98, 104-105 
Settlements, 99-101, 104-106, 182, 
183 
State policies, 99 
The basis of agriculture, 81 
Lantis, L. O., 409 
Leadership, 
And progress, 499-501 
Church, 249-251 
Lee, J., 350 
Lehmann, E. W., 272, 336 
LeBon, G., 474 
Libraries, 274-276 
Leisure, 53 
Lloyd, O. G., 162 
Waipenon HK. C., 211, 367-368, 400, 
l 


INDEX 


Lippman, W., 478 
Love, A. G., 332 
Lumsden, L. L., 335 


MacRae, H., 106 
McBride, G. Me, 82 
McClenahan, B. A., 412 
McIntire, R., 197 
Machines, labor saving, 67-71 
Mackaye, B., 92 
Magnusson, L., 93 
Market, 
Areas, 134 
Contacts, 1385 
Régime, 491-493 
Martin, O. B., 277 
Mead, E., 101, 185, 414 
Ministers, 223-224 
Morality, 
Hired Man’s, 76 
Not result of conversion, 239 
Of rural people high, 235 
Towns’, 437-438 
Morehouse and Ely, 93, 97 
Morgan, E. L., 410 
Morgan, J. S., 408 
Morrill Act, 452 
Morse, R., 417 
Music, as art in rural life, 381-383 


Nason, W. C., 847-348 
National, 
Agricultural organizations, 440- 
448 
Board of farm organizations, 450 
Efficiency, 33-35 
Government and farmer, 445-453 
Politics and farmer, 442, 444 
Newspapers, 
As means of communication, 149- 
150 
Conspicuous cases in rural homes, 


50 
Weeklies, 264, 268 


Occupation, 
Farming a solitary, 74-75 
Farming not a dangerous, 74-75 
Gainfully employed, 44 
raebee on personality, 50, 460- 

63 

Seasonal, 71-72 

Ogden, H. N., 348 

Ogburn, W, F., 116 


INDEX 


Pageants, rural, 383-386 
Parcel post, 144-145 
Park, R. E., 465 
Phelan, hs 154, 255, 359, 417 
Play, see Recreation 
Politics, Farmer and, Chapter XX 
Population, 
Amount of rural, 38 
Character of rural, 39-40 
Drift to cities, 12-16 
Increase in rural, 13 
Movement of, 40-43 
Per cent urban and rural, 38 
Per square miles, 131 
Town and Country, 422-423 
Populist party, 4438-444 
Preston, Mrs. J. C., 288 
Production, 
Over-, 14 
Per acre and per man, 13 
Restricting, 55-56 
Progress, tests of, 498-501 
Psychology, 
Changing farmers, 479-481 
Mob, 474-475 
Of farmers’ 
466-470 
Of standard of living, 122-123 
Social, 470-475 
Public, 
Buildings as objects of art, 379 
Farmer and, 476-479 
Opinion, 477-479 
Platform, 281-282 
Purnell Act, 297, 452 


Quick, H., 15, 37, 502 


Radio, 147-149 
Railroads, 133-136 
Rankin, J. O., 268-269 
Reading materials in farm houses, 
268-274 
Recreation, 
Adequate rural programs, 367- 
372 
Agencies promoting, 372-375 
Characteristics of present, 365- 
367 
Different from amusement, 349- 
350 
Lack of organized, 361-363 
Mental values of, 351-352, 354- 
BOD 
Moral values of, 353 


thought processes, 


507 


Recreation (Continued) 
Need of in rural life, 3538 
Of pioneers, 3638-365 
Physical values of, 351, 353-354 
Role of in life, 349 
Social values of 352, 355-359 
Reese, M. J., 211 
Religion, 
And church, 213-214 
Adequate rural program of, 
Chapter XI 
Ry B.D, 
As agency of communication, 143- 
145 


Dependence upon good roads, 145 
Growth of, 148 

Ribhany, A. M., 463 

Rice, 8. A., 441-442, 463 


Sanders, J. T., 173 
Sanderson, D., 11, 403, 417 
Schmidt and Ross, 37-41, 502 
School, 
As teaching agency, 288-289 
As community institution, 287- 
288 
Attendance, 296-297 
Course oh study, 289-291, 306- 
309, 316 
Consolidation, 318-325 
Influence of race cleavage on, 
302-303 
Influence of tenancy on, 299-300 
Leisure time programs of, 292 
Must add new subjects, 311-315 
Recitations in rural, 294-299 
Rural division of labor of, 284 
Supervision, 298 
Support of, 295-296 
Tasks of rural, 286-287 
Too small, 294, 298 
Weakness of rural, 294-299 
Sectarianism, 221-222, 246 
Sex, distribution of rural popula- 
tion, 40 
Sidis, B., 474 
Small, A. W., 376 
Smith-Hughes, 
Act, 452 
Schools, 323 
Smith-Lever Act, 207, 452 
Snedden, D., 327 
Standard of living, 
As a problem in rural welfare, 
32-33 


508 


Standard of living (Continued) 
Comparison of urban and rural, 
111-117 
Conflict with land values, 103- 
104 
Defined, 108-109 
Elements of, 109 
False and futile, 15 
General facts about, 110 
Influence of economic factors on, 
117 
Influence of tenancy on, 120-121, 
169-174 
Improving rural, 123-127 
Modification by choice, 121-122 
Statistical measurements of, 115- 
120 
Social status of hired men, 77-78 
Socialization, 471-475 
Soil fertility, 22 
Sociology, 
General 3, 5, 6 
Rural, 11 
Streightoff, F. H., 119-120 
stewart, LirC,, 157 
Superstitions, 463-465 
Supply and demand, law of, 15 


Taft, L., 389 
Tannenbaum, F., 466 
Taylor, A. W., 227-228, 230 
Taylor, Carl C., 121-122, 164, 168, 
173-174, 200, 204, 225, 272, 299, 
336, 417, 431, 491 
Taylor, H. C., 26, 60 
Teele, R. P., 102 
Telephone, a 
As agency of communication, 
145-147 
Growth of rural, 146 
Influence on community organi- 
zation, 146-157 
Tenancy, 
A normal step toward owner- 
ship, 158 
Causes of farm, 158-166 
Economic consequence of, 166- 
169 
Effects on community life, 168, 
176-177 
Effects on standard of living, 169- 
174 
Effects on social institutions, 174- 
176, 299-300 
Hereditary, 177-179 


INDEX 


Tenancy (Continued) 
Increase in farm, 156, 158 
Land developments and, 163 
Land values and, 159- 163 
Landed estates and, 165-166 
Poor agriculture and, 166 
Significance in rural life, 155-156 
Social consequence of, 169-179 
Solution of, 179-185 
Theatre, the little country, 386-388 
Town, 
A social entity, 435-436 
And country relations, 421-422 
Planning, 438-439 
Populations, 422-423 
The farmers’, 423-424 
Transportation, 
Development of, 133-149 
Need of a national system, 137- 
138 
Turner, die Doss 


Urbanization, 
Causes of, 19, 494 
Processes, 12-16 
Since 1900, 41-43 


Van Hise, 96 

Vawter, K,, 282 

Veblen, T., ‘474 

Vincent, G. E. 376 

Visiting, 
As means of communication, 150 
Rural family, 151 

Voting, 
ae: in national elections, 445- 

46 


Of tenants, 176 
Vogt Pa: , 218-219, 423, 454 


Wages, 61-62 
Ward, Fr. K., 192, 204-205, 341 
Warburton, S. R., 211, 230 
Warren, i M., 340 
Waugh, F. A., 211, 377-380 
Wealth, 

Concentration of, 427 

Produced by American farmers, 


Weist, E., 409 

Welfare, 
Agricultural, 494-498 
Dependence upon contact, 30 
Relation to efficiency, 27-29 
Teaching rural, 125-127 





INDEX 509 


White, E. V., 174-175, 300 Y. M. C. A., 253-254, 258, 283 
Williams, R. W., 464 Y. W. C. A., 254-255, 258, 283 
Wilson, E., 255 Yoder, F. R., 164, 168, 225, 299, 336 
Wilson, W. H., 234, 307, 411 Young, E. C., 54 
Wissler, C., 473 
Women, Zimmerman, C. C., 121-122, 164, 
As producers, 192 168, 173, 174, 200, 204, 225, 272, 
Household duties of, 193-194 299, 336, 338, 417, 431 
Place on the farm, 191-195 Zinthec, C. J., 69 


WiO0d) Uw) ooo Zumbrunnen, A, C., 411 


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